大象传媒

With complete respect for your position and comments regarding bipolar disorder and creativity, I have a few things I would like to add.

I have suffered tremendously, and for years, with this disorder. I have very, very often heard of individuals who completely agree with your opinions about this matter.

It is quite possible, perhaps even likely, that there is some correlation.

I am a practiced poet and fiction writer, and I cannot say for certain that bipolar is not a contributing, if minimal, factor.

My only hesitation in COMPLETELY endorsing your position is that people without a thorough knowledge of bipolar (in my experience) very often raise the creativity issue as a kind of "plus," a desirable side-effect.

People with a (dangerously)small amount of information offend me greatly with ignorant comments such as, "Bipolars" refuse medication because they enjoy the "high" and it makes them more creative.

I find this very stigmatizing, and I tire of feeling as if I have to defend an opposing opinion.

It took me seventeen years, from the beginning of treatment, to find a medication regimine that relieved my symptoms to the point where my they are now managable, and severe episodes are further in between. I was unfortunate that only in the past few years did the medicine I needed enter the market. I am truly lucky to be alive, and immensely grateful.

There is absolutely nothing in the world that would possess me to stop taking medication. I would not endure that suffering even if doing so would enable me to write a great American novel, or win a nobel prize. Nothing.

When I am symptomatic, I feel ess focused on any task, including artistic ones. In short, manic symptoms bring lots of ideas, but very little output. I am not sure about you, or others, but I think the word "high" is a very poor discription of mania/creative bursts.

"High" implies a pleasurable state, and the uneducated should not have the false impression that there are any desirable aspects to such a trying condition.

In a broad sense, I do agree with you in principle, and I have no wish to be oppositional or narrow-minded. I completely agree with your positive attitude regarding the way in which you can find some good in this painful, difficult situation.

Part of my motive is admittedly selfish. I do believe, for myself, for you, and for others with bipolar disorder, that we deserve just as much credit for our artistic gifts as does an unaffected person. ALL of us, as people work so hard for our art!

In a sense, I feel that attributing our success partially to a disorder undermines the blood, sweat, and tears we invest.

I also think there is a dangerous flip-side to the logic that bipolar disorder facilitates such wonderful things as those we create through art.

Again, my message is very much for the benefit of as yet uneducated people who do not live with bipolar.

Another sterotype/discrimination, or just plain "slam" I encounter is that people with bipolar attribute their destructive behavior to bipolar symptoms.

Therefore, I avoid attributing any of my behavior to the illness. If I do claim that my "good" behavior comes from bipolar symptoms, then why wouldn't I (0r others) blame the "bad" on it as well. I am not suggesting any of us (readers) does this.

I AM saying I am very cautious of giving any well-meaning but uninformed person the idea that my illness has any sort of influence over me that incapacitates me to the point that it, rather than I, am in control of general behaviors that might be deemed good OR bad.

I am differentiating between symptoms and behavior. Undoubtedly, bipolar makes me FEEL suffering, but it does not dictate what I DO in response.

I recently encountered a person who called her boyfriend a "bipolar psycho" because he was manipulative. I asked her, if he was being a jerk, why not just call him a jerk?

Her comment was, to me, the equivalent of a racial slur. She knows I have this condition. To use its name as a part of such an insult is highly offensive.

I enjoyed reading your comments very much. It is rare to find another person who understands.

In short, I have often been stigmatized, my suffering grossly minimized because people tend to put a whole lot of weight on the particular point you mention, so I am careful as to when and how I approach it.

I wish you the best. It is wonderful to see that you find solace and understanding through your connection to art.

All the best,
Jane