In good ‘rubber necking’ style, let’s look at the people who have bipolar disorder to make ourselves feel better and convince ourselves that we are hugely talented, likeable and not just wasted substance abusers! You will find an A-Z list of people with bipolar under Wikipedia. Here are some examples.
A
Sophie Anderton – British model
Adam Ant – British musician
B
Ludwig van Beethoven – Austrian musician and composer
Frank Bruno – British heavyweight boxer and television personality
Russell Brand – British comedian, actor and author. “In a low-key admission at the end of the book, he says he was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder – manic depression – after he kicked the drugs for good in 2002 which goes some way to explaining his almost superhuman indifference to the chaos and catastrophe that almost lead him to obscurity.’’
Lord Byron – British poet, writer and adventurer
C
Alastair Campbell – British press advisor and ‘spin doctor’ to the Tony Blair administration
Patricia Cornwell – American crime writer
Kurt Cobain – American musician of the band ‘Nirvana’
Rosemary Clooney – American singer and actress – aunt of actor George Clooney
D
Ray Davies – British musician of the group ‘The Kinks’ popular in the 1970’s
Charles Dickens – renowned 19th century British author
E
Edward Elgar – British composer
F
Carrie Fisher – American writer and actress of Star Wars fame
Connie Francis – American singer
Stephen Fry – British actor, comedian and writer
G
Paul Gascoigne – ‘Gazza’ – British footballer
Mel Gibson – Australian actor and film director
Graham Greene – British author
H
Paula Hamilton – British model
Ernest Hemingway – American author
I
Jack Irons – British drummer, formerly of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam
J
Jesse Jackson – American politician and son of Civil Rights pioneer
Kay Redfield Jamison – Clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who profiled her own bi-polar disorder in her 1995 memoir ‘An Unquiet Mind’ and argued for a connection between bi-polar disorder and artistic creativity in her 1993 book ‘Touched with Fire’.
K
John Keats – British romantic poet
Kerry Katona – British television presenter, writer, magazine columnist and former singer with girl band Atomic Kitten
L
Vivien Leigh – British actress most famous for her role as Scarlet O’Hara in the film ‘Gone with the Wind’
Abraham Lincoln – Former American president
M
Spike Milligan – British comedian and writer
Marilyn Monroe – American actress
Edvard Munch – Norwegian artist (famous in particular for ‘The Scream’)
N
Isaac Newton – mathematician and physicist
Florence Nightingale – nurse and health campaigner
Friedrich Nietzsche – German philosopher
O
Sinead O’Connor – Irish musician
Bill Oddie – British naturalist, comedian and television presenter
P
Edgar Alan Poe – American poet and writer
Charley Pride – country music artist
R
Axl Rose – lead singer of the band Guns ‘N Roses
Rene Rivkin – entrepreneur
S
Frank Sinatra – American singer and actor
Sidney Sheldon – producer and writer
Dusty Springfield – British singer
T
Margaret Trudeau – Canadian celebrity and ex-wife of former Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau
Ted Turner – American media businessman
V
Jean Claude Van Damme – Belgian actor and kick boxer
Vincent Van Gogh – Dutch artist
Mark Vonnegut – author and American Paediatrician and memoirist
W
David Walliams – British actor, author, comedian, charity fundraiser
Ruby Wax – American comedienne
Amy Winehouse – British musician
Virginia Woolf – author
Brian Wilson – American musician
Sadly the late Robin Williams may also have suffered.
Z
Catherine Zeta Jones – Welsh actress and Hollywood film star