Who Should Be the Bipolar Spokesperson?

By Joe Kraynak
October 27, 2009

I was recently talking with a friend of mine, Mikal Belicove, who happens to be a marketing and positioning expert. I was describing someone I had met during a recent trip to Ljubljana, Slovenia to help promote the release of the Slovene edition of Bipolar Disorder for Dummies – a well-traveled, well-spoken, accomplished businessman who has bipolar disorder.

Mikal thought that was interesting. He said he only hears about celebrities or famous historical figures with bipolar, like Robin Williams, Vincent Van Gogh, and Theodore Roosevelt – people, who when you hear they have bipolar, you tend to say, “Oh yeah, that explains a lot.” He found it odd that we tend to hold these individuals up as representative of the bipolar community. He suggested it might be better to have some representatives more like the businessman I had described – regular, ordinary people.

On the same day Mikal and I had this discussion, I noticed a post on our Bipolar Blog by Harold Knight, a teacher in a private university.

This may not be exactly germane here, but I think it is. I have discovered a resource for support that I never would have dreamed of. I teach in a major private university, and I accidentally mentioned my blog (about my bipolar disorder and my temporal lobe epilepsy) to a couple of my students. They went looking for it. At first they were shocked. And then they began to be interested. Nearly all of my students know about it, and it has sparked some very interesting conversations.

My sense is that there is a group of young people who have been introduced to the fact that bipolar disorder is not some horrible crazy-making thing, but a disease that even one of their respected teachers can have, and it doesn’t make him either a monster or a bad teacher. I think we need more of this kind of education – even before people get into marriages.

Unfortunately, with bipolar disorder, the depressive side doesn’t make the headlines. Nor does the normal side. Bipolar memoirs, Web sites, and blogs tend to call more attention to the manias, especially when they spiral into psychotic episodes. And celebrities, often eccentric, are the spokespeople – the face of bipolar.

Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate celebrities coming out and speaking out about bipolar and mental illness and raising awareness. I’d just like to see some more attention paid to people in other fields who have the illness, manage it, and live productive and fulfilling lives. I’d like to see more awareness of the fact that Harold brings to light: “That bipolar disorder is not some horrible crazy-making thing, but a disease that even one of their respected teachers can have, and it doesn’t make him either a monster or a bad teacher.”

We would like to know what you think. Please post a comment to share your observations and insights on this topic with other visitors of Bipolar Beat.

In 1999, my wife, Cecie, experienced her first major manic episode. She ended up in St. Vincent’s Stress Center, where she was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder. She has been hospitalized a total of three times – all for mania. She rarely experiences the debilitating depression that many people with bipolar disorder struggle with. We have two children together, both of whom are pretty much adults at this point. Over the past decade or so, we’ve struggled to coexist with this disease. At times, it seems to be a cruel puppet master pulling our strings to act out some demented drama on the stage we call our home. Most times, we manage to keep this beast chained up, through a combination of medicine and therapy, but occasionally it escapes and turns our home inside out. In 2005, I had the good fortune to co-author Bipolar Disorder For Dummies with Dr. Candida Fink. In the process, I learned a great deal about bipolar disorder and strategies for treating it, preventing major mood episodes, and dealing with the fallout when preventive measures are ineffective. Through this blog, I hope to share what I’ve learned about bipolar while I continue to discover even more.

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One Comment to
“Who Should Be the Bipolar Spokesperson?”

becky at 3:56 pm on October 27th, 2009

that’s an interesting comment. I recently joined a Facebook group for Bipolar Disorder and many of the young people were having a really tough time with it. It seems like someone in their 20’s as a successful role model would be great.

Also, while I was on the site, I saw a great recommendation for your book, which I’ll probably buy.