Famous People with Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder is a fairly common psychiatric disease, but those suffering from the disease may feel alone and disengaged from normal society. This is a false feeling, however, because there are many famous people with bipolar disorder.
There are many famous people with bipolar disorder who have verified and confirmed that they have the disease. In adidition, there is a long list of famous people who are suspected of having had bipolar disorder, but there was no firm diagnosis during their lifetime.
The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill keeps a comprehensive list of famous people with bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses. Among the famous people with bipolar disorder are musicians such as Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven is suspected of having bipolar disorder, but he may also have been a victim of lead poisoning.
Other famous people with bipolar disorder of the modern era include Jimi Hendrix, Ozzy Osbourne, lead singer of the band Black Sabbath and a reality television star, Scott Weiland, lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots and later Velvet Revolver, and Brian Wilson of the Beachboys.
In addition, Kurt Cobain had bipolar disorder, and was diagnosed, but did not properly comply with his medication and other treatments, leading to his suicide.
Numerous famous people with bipolar disorder come from the world of literature. Among the famous writers who were likely sufferers of the disorder are Hans Christian Andersen, Lord Byron, Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
William Faulkner, Kurt Vonnegut, Ernest Hemingway, and John Keats.
Poet Sylvia Plath wrote of her disorder, “It is as if my life were magically run by two electric currents: joyous and positive and despairing negative.” In addition, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Sidney Sheldon also suffered from bipolar disorder.
Other famous people with bipolar disorder include politicians like Winston Churchill and possibly Abraham Lincoln. Actors and actresses with the disorder include Richard Dreyfuss, Patty Duke, Carrie Fisher, Linda Hamilton, Vivien Leigh, and Jean Claude Van Damme. News anchor Jane Pauley and artist Vincent Van Gogh were also afflicted.