Famous People With Bipolar Disorder

Also referred to as manic-depressive illness, this brain disorder is marked by unusual shifts in moods, activity levels, energy and ability to carry out daily activities. These are not the regular ups and downs that one goes through on a regular basis. This is far more severe. In the United States alone, it's estimated that more than 17.4 million adults have a depressive disorder each year. This disorder tarnishes the person's personal and professional life. It is often said that high intelligence quotient and mental illnesses are linked to one another. People with above average creativity and those with exceptional gifts are often seen to become prey to bipolar disorder. This fact can be affirmed by the observing the number of famous people with bipolar disorder. Let's find who were these famous folks. Read more on causes of bipolar disorder.

List of Famous People With Bipolar Disorder

Since the list of celebrities with bipolar disorder is an extensive one, we will divide these famous people by their professions.

Famous Writers With Bipolar Disorder
There are several writers that have been diagnosed with bipolar depression in their lifetime. Let's look at a list of some such writers.

    * Leo Tolstoy
    * Malcolm Lowry
    * Kenneth Graham
    * Graham Greene
    * Mary Shelley
    * Charles Dickens
    * Jean Stafford
    * Nikolai Gogl
    * Robert Louis Stevenson
    * Francis Parkman
    * Emile Zola
    * James Barrie
    * Maxim Gorky
    * William Inge
    * Joseph Conrad
    * Eugene O'Neill

Famous Poets With Bipolar Disorder

    * Alfred, Lord Tennyson
    * Walt Whitman
    * Samuel Johnson
    * Victor Hugo
    * John Davidson
    * Robert Lowell
    * William Blake
    * C.E. Chaffin
    * John Clare
    * T S Eliot

Famous Actors With Bipolar Disorder

    * Ned Beatty
    * Drew Carey
    * Jim Carrey
    * Patty Duke
    * Carrie Fisher
    * Cary Grant
    * Linda Hamilton
    * Marilyn Monroe
    * Kevin McDonald
    * Kristy McNichol
    * Tracy Ullman
    * Connie Francis
    * Nicola Pagett
    * Jeremy Brett
    * Margot Kidder

Famous Composers and Musicians With Bipolar Disorder

    * Charles Ives
    * Alexander Scriagbin
    * Bernd Alois Zimmerman
    * Anton Arensky
    * Otto Klemperer
    * Anton Bruckner
    * Hugo Wolf
    * Gustav Holst
    * Sergey Rachmaninoff
    * Jeremiah Clarke
    * Giocchino Rossini
    * Modest Mussorgsky
    * John Dowland
    * Kurt Cobain
    * Noel Coward
    * Stephen Foster
    * Bud Powell
    * Charles Parker

Kurt Cobain, was diagnosed with Attention deficit disorder during his teenage years and later on he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He was one of the famous people with bipolar disorder and ADD.

Famous Artists With Bipolar Disorder

    * Jackson Pollock
    * George Frederic Watts
    * Anders Zorn
    * Arshile Gorky
    * Ralph Barton
    * Edward Dayes
    * Hugo van der Goes
    * Charles Meryon
    * Mark Rothko
    * Ernst Josephson
    * Benjamin Haydon
    * Edward Lear

Famous Sports People With Bipolar Disorder

    * Ilie Nastase, tennis
    * Alonzo Spellman, football
    * Shelley Beattie, bodybuilding, sailing
    * Darryl Strawberry, baseball
    * John Daly, golf
    * Wyatt Sexton, football
    * Muffin Spencer-Devlin, pro golf
    * Dimitrius Underwood, football
    * Jimmy Piersail, baseball player and sports announcer
    * Luther Wright, basketball
    * Bert Yancey, athlete
    * Barret Robbins, football

Usually, it is observed that people with bipolar disorder have been addicted to alcohol and drugs. They are also people who have gone through horrendous situations in their lives. Then, some had the genes of bipolar disorder passed to them through their genes, as they had a family history of mental illnesses. They live in the pit of depression and keep battling suicidal thoughts. Some even try to take their own lives.

This list of famous people with bipolar disorder is not the complete one. There are scores of other celebrities that have and are living with this condition. Besides the above mentioned list, some other famous people with bipolar disorder were Abraham Lincoln, Ludwig van Beethoven, Isaac Newton, Michelangelo, Winston Churchill, etc. Thus, there is no need to feel stigmatized if you are diagnosed with this problem. It's a problem that has affected many before you and will affect many after you. Do not shy away from treatment of bipolar disorder.