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Celebrities with Bipolar

By Sue Bergeson, Health Guide Monday, June 11, 2007
What is it about famous people with our illnesses? It’s always amazing to me how reassuring we seem to find it when we can hold up a list of famous people and say “See, they have it too.” Somehow, we feel more “normal” … more “acceptable.”  Rese...
Anonymous
Kate Arthur
6/13/07 3:23pm

From most recent collection:


Cohen, Leonard, 2006. Book of Longing. Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 2006.


<!-- Print inline webimage-type tag --><!-- Regular tag --><!-- Print inline webimage-type tag --><!-- Regular tag -->ISBN: 0771022344



Separated p. 133



I was doing something


I don't remember what


I was standing in a place


I don't remember where


I was waiting for someone


but I don't remember who


it was before or it was after


I don't remember when


And suddenly, or gradually


I was removed, I was taken


to this place of reversal


and I was separated


and in the place of every part


there was the name of fear


and for a vast memorial


there was the name of grief


If you know the prayer


for one who has been so dislocated


please say it or sing it


and if there is among the word


an empty space, or among the letters


an orchard of return


please set my name firmly there


with a voice or hand


which only you command


you righteous ones


who are concerned with such matters


But hurry please


for all the parts of me


that gathered briefly around this plea


are dispersed again


and scattered on the Other Side


where angels stand upside down


and everything is covered in dust


and everyone burns with shame


and no one is allowed to cry out


Anonymous
m
6/15/07 8:42am
I find it sad that we tent to look to famous people to make us feel "better" there is a big difference between them and me, they have the finacial resouces to find the best therapy and do not have to worry about paying for the medication and therapy costs. If they need some time off and want to take a couple of weeks or months to find peace, they can. I work, and not many of my bosses would understand or tolerate needing time off for mental health.
When I am depressed I cannot hire someone to clean my home or take the burden of everday life off my plate. No ,I look at them like lucky souls who are very fortunate not to be in my shoes. Plus everyone still looks up to them even with strange behavior, where I am, its condsidered strange and people move away, not gather up to see me.
Anonymous
someGirl
3/ 6/08 2:41am
I think if something makes people feel better about something maybe it isn't a bad thing.  These people should be seen as people who fought through the torment of their disease and made their illness something productive.  It gives people a chance to evaluate things in a different light, not just from the individual-centered perspective of one with Bipolar disorder.  These people did not all have health insurance and wonderful opportunities to have everything handed to them.  Most famous people with BPMD killed themselves or were alive during a time when mental health was not a consideration of reality.  They did something a lot of people can't do...fight through the misery to create and share their art with others.  For this reason alone they are inspiring.
2/25/08 7:41am
Sue, how do you know these people have bipolar disorder?  I am fascinated.  I knew about the some of the others, but Harrison Ford?
Anonymous
Bill McLaughlin
3/26/08 5:28pm
I enjoyed your material.  I somehow feel better about myself knowing there are others who suffer as I do.  Especially knowing there are famous people who battle the same demons!  Somehow it makes me feel not so lonely.  I too write about Bipolar on another blog site.  HubPages, under the name akeejaho.  I think it helps to educate both those who are and those who are not Bipolar, and I know it really helps, all the way around.
4/25/11 11:06pm

tonight i was reading my  face book and some one wrote to me because i was bipolar i was insane i live in a small town halifax co, va, the people here do not realize that it is a chemical imbalance. i get so tried of people hehe sayin im crazy and i will kill some one when half the population here are on drugs, just because you are bipolar doesnt mean you are insane ,yea ive been hospitialized. no im not insane, but i realized something wasnt right, people need to be more informed in this county even the  the police dept, ive been beaten several times for the fact people know im bipolar in this small community. ive reported people several times with no avail. i was a lpn for 21 years before i was told to apply for disability.im so tried of trying to explain i would rather have heart disease or diabetes .

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By Sue Bergeson, Health Guide— Last Modified: 12/02/12, First Published: 06/11/07