Bi-Polar_Disorder_and_Creativity

Bi-Polar Disorder and Creativity Bi-polar disorder, also known as manic-depression, is a mood disorder recognized by its periods of mania and depression. These periods can last hours, days, weeks or months. Often, there are periods of wellness between these episodes where there are few to no symptoms present. People with bi-polar disorder actually experience four types of mental states which are depression, hypomania, mania and mixed-state. Sometimes when a person is in extreme mania or depression they will also experience psychosis. Depression is characterized by on-going sadness; loss of interest in things you normally enjoy; difficulty sleeping or oversleeping; changes in body weight; physical slowing or agitation; loss of energy; feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt; difficulty thinking or concentrating; and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide. (March 30, http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/bipolarrestfact.cfm) Hypomania is not as intense or overwhelming a feeling as mania, but it shares many of the same characteristics with actual mania. It can be summarized by the following quote: “At first when I’m high, it’s tremendous…ideas are fast…like shooting stars you follow until brighter ones appear….all shyness disappears, the right words and gestures are suddenly there…uninteresting people, things, become intensely interesting. Sensuality is pervasive; bi-polar, disorder, mania, illness, depression, mood, creative, people, been, writers, symptoms, known, between, suicide, percent, 30, treatment, study, often, manic, life, hypomania, during, disorders, about, times, three, severe, persons, person, periods, one, link, episodes, creativity, until, university, time, states, rate, psychosis, jamison, http//wwwnimhnihgov/publicat, book, artists, age, march, written