Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: Alan McDougall on 12/10/2008 04:45:23
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Hi,
Manic depression is sometimes called the brilliant madness. And I see that we are mad at times an sanity can be relative to our culture.
Here are a list of just a few remarable people who had bipolar disorder. I do not like that term for what I have had to suffer it waters down the true horror of this afflction and gift
The Geniuses listed here were 'great' because they had Manic Depression. They suffered in their creativity and have given an irreplaceable richness to mankind throughout the ages. Society is indebted to them and to our present day geniuses who are reluctant to admit to the 'illness' because of the stigma, but they do exist.
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Aberdeen Famous People with Manic Depression 87 Holburn Street
ABERDEEN
AB10 6BQ
Tel. 01224 590435
The Geniuses listed here were 'great' because they had Manic Depression. They suffered in their creativity and have given an irreplaceable richness to mankind throughout the ages. Society is indebted to them and to our present day geniuses who are reluctant to admit to the 'illness' because of the stigma, but they do exist.
Leaders
Artists
Composers
Sir Winston Churchill
Edwin Landseer
Bach
And His Father
Michelangelo - Artist,
Beethoven
Sir Randolph Churchill
Sculptor And Poet
Tschaikovsky
And His Ancestor
Vincent Van Gogh
Chopin
John Churchill,
First Duke Of Marlborough
Francesca Goya
Mozart
Abraham Lincoln,
John Turner
Mahler
President Of The U.S.A.
Peter Paul Rubens
Liszt
Theodore Roosevelt,
Pablo Picasso
Berlioz
President Of The U.S.A.
Paul Gauguin
Schumann
Lord Nelson
George Romney
Handel
Napoleon Buonaparte
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Elgar
Oliver Cromwell
Sir David Wilkie
Rachmaninoff
Mao Tse-Tung
William Blake
Wagner
Alexander The Great
Holtz
Writers
Rossini
Poets
Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Non Classical Composers
Lord Byron
Ernest Hemingway
Robert Burns
Leo Tolstoy
Cole Porter
Victor Hugo
Virginia Wolff
Irving Berlin
Charles Baudelaire
Graham Greene
Noel Coward
William Blake
Mark Twain
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Rupert Brooke
Charles Dickens
Stephen Foster
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Charlotte Bronte
T.S. Eliot
Tennessee Williams
Scientists
Oliver Goldsmith
Hans Christian Anderson
Samuel Johnson
Honore De Balzac
Albert Einstein
John Keats
James Barrie
Sir Isaac Newton
Robert Lowell
John Bunyon
Charles Darwin
Boris Pasternak
Joseph Conrad
James Watt
Edgar Allan Poe
Alexander Dumas
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Maxim Gorky
Present Day
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Kenneth Graham
People
Dylan Thomas
Henrik Ibsen
Rudyard Kipling
Henry James
Spike Milligan
William James
Liza Minnelli
Others
Robert Louis Stevenson
Peter Gabriel
Samual Johnson
Axl Rose
Florence Nightingale
Thomas De Quincy
Robin Williams
Vivien Leigh Butler
Elizabeth Barratt Browning
Madonna
Martin Luther
Oscar Wilde
Nicola Pagett
St. Francis Of Assissi
Thomas Carlyle
Margot Kidder
John Ogden
(Lois Lane In Superman)
Howard Hughes
Explorers
Leaders
Artists
Composers
Sir Winston Churchill
Edwin Landseer
Bach
And His Father
Michelangelo - Artist,
Beethoven
Sir Randolph Churchill
Sculptor And Poet
Tschaikovsky
And His Ancestor
Vincent Van Gogh
Chopin
John Churchill,
First Duke Of Marlborough
Francesca Goya
Mozart
Abraham Lincoln,
John Turner
Mahler
President Of The U.S.A.
Peter Paul Rubens
Liszt
Theodore Roosevelt,
Pablo Picasso
Berlioz
President Of The U.S.A.
Paul Gauguin
Schumann
Lord Nelson
George Romney
Handel
Napoleon Buonaparte
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Elgar
Oliver Cromwell
Sir David Wilkie
Rachmaninoff
Mao Tse-Tung
William Blake
Wagner
Alexander The Great
Holtz
Writers
Rossini
Poets
Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Non Classical Composers
Lord Byron
Ernest Hemingway
Robert Burns
Leo Tolstoy
Cole Porter
Victor Hugo
Virginia Wolff
Irving Berlin
Charles Baudelaire
Graham Greene
Noel Coward
William Blake
Mark Twain
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Rupert Brooke
Charles Dickens
Stephen Foster
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Charlotte Bronte
T.S. Eliot
Tennessee Williams
Scientists
Oliver Goldsmith
Hans Christian Anderson
Samuel Johnson
Honore De Balzac
Albert Einstein
John Keats
James Barrie
Sir Isaac Newton
Robert Lowell
John Bunyon
Charles Darwin
Boris Pasternak
Joseph Conrad
James Watt
Edgar Allan Poe
Alexander Dumas
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Maxim Gorky
Present Day
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Kenneth Graham
People
Dylan Thomas
Henrik Ibsen
Rudyard Kipling
Henry James
Spike Milligan
William James
Liza Minnelli
Others
Robert Louis Stevenson
Peter Gabriel
Samual Johnson
Axl Rose
Florence Nightingale
Thomas De Quincy
Robin Williams
Vivien Leigh Butler
Elizabeth Barratt Browning
Madonna
Martin Luther
Oscar Wilde
Nicola Pagett
St. Francis Of Assissi
Thomas Carlyle
Margot Kidder
John Ogden
(Lois Lane In Superman)
Howard Hughes
Explorers
Thomas Edison
Robert E. Lee
David Livingstone
Jeremy Brett
Christopher Columbus
Thomas Edison
Robert E. Lee
David Livingstone
Jeremy Brett
Christopher Columbus
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very nic post and compilation Alan... Thankyou!
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May I just ask, who diagnosed these people? Most of them long dead.
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It seems to be fashionable to have a mental illness at the moment. I would just like to tell all those band wagon jumpers that you can not be bipolar if you are terminally boring!!!
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Paul,
Paul this post is not just directed at you so please read it in that light
May I just ask, who diagnosed these people? Most of them long dead.
Bipolar suffers, of which I am unfortunately one, are diagnosed by their behavior and one can see that by reading the biographies of people like Winston Churchill with his enormous energy that enabled him to remain awake for weeks at a time and then his almost suicidal spells of depression which he called the “Black Dog”
The agony and ecstasy of Michael Angelo is just another example. Van Gogh painting in extremely bright colors like the one on sun flowers is another. And his cutting off his ear is the very kind of thing an extreme manic will do
I can go on and on I admit I am not a psychiatrist but can immediately notice another manic by his odd behavior. Even on forums like this one. The sudden change in character and behavior baffles people who do not know me well.
You might notice with I am battling with mania my posts will suddenly veer off in a direction that has nothing to do with the topic,
When I revert to normal I see the bizarre inputs by me and remove them.
Paul you of all People you knew I was a manic depressive, so your antagonizing of me was most unkind
A person in the manic phase is angered very easily and responds immediately without reflecting on what they say. I have lost friends due to them not understanding me and I hoped the forum would have more understanding about this appalling affliction, especially in the light of me perceiving you guys as informed folk
Nearly every second person now seems to have bipolar and this is not true they are just suffering from mildly elevated moods swings and are too quickly put on heavy psychiatric drugs which removes their creativity.
The in crowd seems to think they are in the Zone and with it if they are bipolar indeed they come on TV and radio bragging about what they do not suffer from
God forbid that they get real manic depression and unspeakable horror that can lead ones mind into realms where angels fear to tread and into the despair, desolation and hopelessness of utter unspeakable psychoses beyond description a suffering that feels worst than death itself
I perceived this forum as being populated by informed persons and I clearly told everyone I was a manic depressive and assumed wrongly that I would be met with more understanding.
If I get off beat and post rubbish please send me a polite private message and I will remove it pronto
Just to conclude many bipolar people are highly informed intellectuals of which I am one
Alan
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Paul you of all People you knew I was a manic depressive, so your antagonizing of me was most unkind
Alan, I asked a simple question: "May I just ask, who diagnosed these people? Most of them long dead.". I wonder why there is a need to put people in boxes with nice, neat labels on them. We can not know for a fact that long dead people suffered from one mental illness or another, and why should we want to state that they did?
People may have exhibited traits or a trait of an illness, but is that enough for a diagnosis? again, why would we even want to?
I think we just find it easier to put people in boxes with labels on them, i see it as a cop out. Oh, hes not an unruly little shite, he has adhd.
Edit:
In addition, i think people like to state that famous people have or had an illness to sex it up, make it seem nornal, and try and remove a stigma from being diagnosed with a mental illness. I agree that we should help remove any stigma from a diagnosis, but lets not bany names about. Quite often quoted is Bill Gates and Asperger Syndrome without proof just speculation. I also hear that people "think" sarah palin suffers from bipolar. Again, lets put a label on people. A label tells the world who you are, not what you are.
Are you alan, who is a bipolar sufferer. Or are you just Alan?
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Paul
You are correct and we agree for once. It is not me that boxed in these famous people of history but modern experts in the fields yes sciences of human behavior. Psychiatry and psychology are science not esoteric nonsense.
We look back at great people like Einstein and label him as a great physicist, which indeed he was but he was much more than just a physicist he was also a great human being so from this perceptive your argument is correct
And Paul I did say that the post was not just directed at you, only the chapter about Churchill, Michael Angelo and the painter Vincent Van Gogh
Indeed I am not "bipolar" or just an engineer that word does not descibe me at all I am not that label I am that composite complex entity or being known as "Alan", get my point?
Alan
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Real manic depression contains all the below symptoms
RevMaster and others
Symtoms of extreme hypermania of which I have had every one and ended up in psychiatric hostipals many times. I have also had numeruos electric shock convulsive treatments (most effective).
Manic Behavior you might Observe
Generally an episode seems to begin overnight with a sudden and pleasant switch of mood to one of well-being, lightening, happiness and positive energy. At this stage (known as mild mania or hypomania) the individual is able to function quite well, and this mood may persist at this level for a long period of time without becoming more severe. In other cases it intensifies day by day into true mania. This is the state I will discuss here.
Out of control of emotions and behavior….very distressed
Normally amiable people may become increasingly angry, impulsive, emotional or irritable
Intense euphoria that nothing can disturb, but if their plans are foiled they may become irritable or uncontrollably furious
Some may become hostile
A few manics may become paranoid or violent and assault others verbally or physically
Very rapid speech, incessant and usually in a loud voice
Answer questions at great length and continue talking when others speak
Speech may be riddled with jokes, puns, or irrelevant witticisms
Acting in theatrical roles and ways
Offer money or advice to passing strangers
Unable to sleep or sit still…often going for days with 2 or3 hrs sleep and not feeling tired
Socially frenetic…throwing parties, going to bars
Throw aside normal inhibitions and become sexually hyperactive or promiscuous
Due to impaired judgement very poor decision making skills. Overspending, over commitment, quitting jobs, etc.
Thinking completely illogical
Speech uncontrollable and sometimes incoherent
Unable to distinguish between "real" and "not real"
Delusions, paranoia, hallucinations
Catatonia possible.
Frightening!!!!!!
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i have bi-polar disorder which i manage with sodium valporate it is a debilitating condition and can lead to other problems socially mentally physically and financially if left unchecked. I may have taken these posts out of context but it seems that you are making light of a condition that robs people of a chance at a normal life. Before treatment i couldn't maintain a job or study due to the nature of the condition. It really can be debilitating and i'm not in the slightest happy or proud that i have it. Also its called bi-polar for a reason. I've not yet found much mention of the other side of the coin. The depressive suicidal pitiful blackness that goes hand in hand with the ecstatic mania.
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Danie,
To whom is your post directed?.
I have suffered from this appalling malady nearly all my life. I have been hospitalised over eighteen times and received ECT numerous times so I definitely am not making light of something that almost destroyed my life and lead me to attempted suicide
I also tale sodium valporate Epilim and other medication to allow me to function
I have compassion for you and may your life be blessed from now on
I am most likely much older than you and was misdiagnosed and given the wrong treatment
Take Care
Alan
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Alan why did you do your name list in triplicate? Good post though also I use Epilim/Sodium Valproate not for depressive illnesses but as an anti-epilepsy medicine.
Which is what it's formally made for.
As some research has shown that people with epilepsy can also suffer from depression. I agree with that as I do.
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rosalind dna
Alan why did you do your name list in triplicate? Good post though also I use Epilim/Sodium Valproate not for depressive illnesses but as an anti-epilepsy medicine.
Which is what it's formally made for.
As some research has shown that people with epilepsy can also suffer from depression. I agree with that as I
I dont understand Roalind did you look at my profile maybe I made a mistake there
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"May I just ask, who diagnosed these people? Most of them long dead."
I wonder if it's the same person who "measureed" the IQs of a bunch of dead people.
The diagnosis of mental illnesss is often difficult. A famous pair of experiments back in the early 70's by a bloke named David Rosenhan proved that.
He got a bunch of volunteers to turn up in mental hospitals saying that, from time to time, they heard voices- the voices only said one thing ;"thud". After saying this the volunteers just went with the flow- if they were asked again they said the "voices" had stopped. In all other ways they gave honest accurate answers. All of them were diagnosed as mentally ill. They spent between 7 and 52 days in hospital.
Rosenhan published his results.
The establishment reacted with horror and said they were sure they would spot imposters. Rosenhan took up the bet. He asked them to identify the next batch of "fraudulent" patients.
The learneed societ published a paper saying that they had identified a number of these "fake patients". Roseenhan pointed out that this was odd, since he hadn't sent any.
Times change- the diagnostic procedures have been improved beyond all measure.
Yet when someone (Lauren Slater) recently repeated the experiment (even down to the word "thud") they were diagnosed as psychotic and given drugs as "treatment".
On that basis I think that diagnosing dead people is, in the first place unlikely to be scientifically valid, and in the second place unlikely to benfit anyone.
I can see some semblance of a point. If you can say "Look! all these people were suffered from this problem and they did very well" it may help to remove the stigma attached to those who, like my cousin, suffer from the disease but I think that too may people would just say "so what?". In any event, it's hardly going to get her a normal life back.
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May I say that I'm not making fun of people with this condition. I am making fun of people who "decide" they are bipolar just because they sometime feel blue and sometimes feel very happy. This is called being a human being. My friend was bipolar and I once had to carry her home from a nightclub as she suddenly became so depressed that she didn't have enough energy to walk. She also had the mania. I remember having to stay up all night with her on a trip to London. She didn't stop talking all night and I seem to remember running after her a lot and early in the morning at the bus station she had a bunch of Grannies singing war songs with her.
I found her exhausting and couldn't hack it. I tried to get her to seek treatment as some people thought she was a drug addict because of the mood swings. She ruined my Birthday party one year because she locked herself in the toilet and we thought she was going to kill herself and I was always known as her friend as when she was up everyone partied.
I lost touch with her eventually but she was definitely bipolar. I think a lot of hypochondriacs like to give themselves a mental illness as it excuses them from doing things they don't want to do.
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PS Spike Milligan was bipolar and what a genius he was.
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Rosalind
May I say that I'm not making fun of people with this condition. I am making fun of people who "decide" they are bipolar just because they sometime feel blue and sometimes feel very happy
That is so very very true , people with moderate mood swing are being medicated by psychotropic drugs when there is absolutely nothing wrong with them. My sister is an example she went to her doctor for some unrelated cause and he said she was bipolar if anyone is not bipolar this remarkable woman is one
These celebrities who come on TV and radio almost bragging about the fact that they are bipolar is a lot on nonsense. As a bipolar myself just listening to them blather makes me angry as I know they are lying and making up the story. What for I have no idea. A real sufferer would be very very reluctant to come on national media and disclose this very private thing
Every second person is now seems bipolar like you said it is the "in disease" you are in the "Zone" if you are bipolar , the fashionable illness they are only with it and in the Zone if they have.
There was a spate of young people in the 1920s who committed suicide as this was the act of all real thinking then, just deciding and mimic the sickness to get your doctor to think you are bipolar, The list of symptoms I posted makes that point.. If a healthy person is drugged severe psychiatric disease like manic depression it can be dangerous indeed and lead to drug abuse and addiction
Alan
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Make it lady
Was it not Spike Mulligan whose grave stone had engraved on it "I told you I was sick"
A very funny Guy he was.
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Recent studies have found that one woman in five, and one man in ten, will suffer from depression or manic depression sometime during the course of their lives. This is a disturbing statistic, but there is hope, because more and more evidence has surfaced to indicate that many psychiatric disorders are biological diseases that can be successfully treated with medication. Most people, however, know little about these recent findings. They don't know how to tell if the depression they are suffering from is biological or not, nor what they can do to recover from it if it is.
Bipolar Support Group (http://”http://www.imedix.com/bipolar”)
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davidhudson01
Recent studies have found that one woman in five, and one man in ten, will suffer from depression or manic depression sometime during the course of their lives. This is a disturbing statistic
I would say that these statistics might be accurate, in fact 100% of people get episodes of depression during their lives.
But as for manic depression it is inaccurate, manic depression is an extremely life threatening illness and mental and psychosis of the worst kind if not treated timeously.
Alan
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in fact 100% of people get episodes of depression during their lives.
100%! Are you sure?
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Paul,
100%! Are you sure?
Yes!! I have never met even one person who has not been sad or had a down moods at times.
Everyone has mild cycles of happiness and sadness during their lives,, I am of course not referring to repeated clinical depression that requires lifelong treatment and medication
Alan
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Paul,
100%! Are you sure?
Yes!! I have never met even one person who has not been sad or had a down moods at times.
But being sad is not the same as having depression, is it?
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Paul
Maybe but everyone has mood swings, and I feel people who are not really ill are put on psychiatric drugs.
My sister as an example went to her doctor for a problem unrelated to depression or bipolar disorder, and the doctor told her she might be bipolar which she decidedly was not
She is one of the most collected balanced person I have ever met
Alan