Charlie Sheen was asked during an interview is he was bipolar. His response was “the earth is bipolar.” Although I love Charlie, he is most likely bipolar and bipolar people are seen as those crazy people we need to keep away from us. I researched the disorder when I found out the great Ernest Hemmingway was so afflicted. He bought us some of the most amazing literature of the last one-hundred years, and a gunshot wound to the head. His granddaughters Mariel and Margaux also inherited the ‘curse’ and Margaux, a model, swallowed pills as her last meal.
Hunter Thompson, the author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, followed in Ernest’s footsteps by writing amazing works with an equally insane lifestyle. He, like Hemmingway, blew his own brains out at age sixty-three when he felt his life had run its course. Van Gogh, one also dealing with the highs and lows, shot himself and died from his wounds. I call it Self Natural Selection; Darwin would have been proud.
Bipolar people get just a little bit higher and a little bit lower than the rest of us. They have bouts of genius followed by spots of depression. During the highs, they entertain the world and dance and sing in public and don’t care who is watching. The lows are spent on the couch watching Jerry Springer and eating a bag of chips. Just like yin and yang, seemingly opposing forces can actually work together to serve the greater good.
Our government is bipolar. The Democrats and Republicans are supposed to help each other offering different viewpoints of the same issue and coming up with workable solutions for the betterment of mankind. And like acid and base, they cancel each other out, just like Al Sharpton and common sense.
Ozzy (no last name necessary) is bipolar; this is both the actor and the musician. Marilyn had her ups and downs, and not just in bed with JFK.
Jim Carey has bipolar disorder although this is obvious to anyone who has seen the Ace Ventura movies. Robin Williams has an issue with the poles and it seems to be what has propped up his career while leaving his stability in question.
Without bipolar, we would have no marathons. Who else would run 26 miles 385 yards to achieve runner’s high? The average Giants fan only has to walk up a flight of stairs to get this feeling.
Ted Turner is bipolar and he’s the reason we have cable television and a $200 bill every month for something that used to be free. Abraham Lincoln had bipolar and thank goodness he did or we’d need a passport to vacation in Florida. Kurt Cobain’s bipolar episodes helped grunge end the era of hair bands and grown men wearing makeup and using mousse. Liz Taylor had White Diamonds, violet eyes, eight husbands, and bipolar.
Bipolar is not really something you have, it’s something you are. It’s bouts of intense energy and creativity followed by periods of total shutdown; like a light switch, you’re either on or you’re off. There isn’t much middle ground.
Successful bipolar people are deemed eccentric geniuses; unsuccessful bipolar people are mentally ill. Bipolar people love the high so much, that they need to have it all of the time. They use music, and achievement, and sports, and writing, and painting, and acting, and humor, and spending, and collecting, and gambling, and driving, and alcohol, and violence, and sex, and drugs to maintain that high. They’ll do anything to stay on top of it.
Van Gogh’s couldn’t past the lows even after marathon painting sessions; his dying words were “The sadness will last forever.” Bipolar people are sometimes thought to be crazy. Steve Jobs was bipolar; he once said “the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do.” Call me crazy but I see genius.
