Celebrities And Famous People With Bipolar Disorder

Sinéad O’Connor

In the late 1980s, Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor hit the headlines with her Grammy-winning songs and defiant attitude. In her twenties, meanwhile, as her celebrity grew, she started suffering from depression.

O’Connor’s depression worsened over time, and she even considered suicide, until she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder just at 37. In 2007, she spoke candidly about her situation on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

“Every pore of you is crying and you don’t even understand why or what,” she said. “I actually kind of died and got born again as a result of taking the meds and having a chance to, you know, build a life.”

Ernest Hemingway

This Nobel Laureate was plagued by manic-depressive episodes throughout his life, a characteristic he inherited from his parents, son, and granddaughter Margaux. Hemingway suffered from despair and paranoia, despite his larger-than-life demeanor and works such as For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Farewell to Arms. In 1961, he shot himself in the temple because he was obsessed with death.

Ted Turner

Turner Broadcasting and CNN founder Ted Turner have battled depression and bipolar disorder for much of his life. Despite this, Turner transformed a modest Atlanta independent television station into a global media powerhouse. He managed the Atlanta Braves and Hawks at one stage and claimed America’s Cup.

Kurt Cobain

Nirvana’s co-founder suffered from attention deficit disorder as a child, followed by bipolar disorder later in life. He chose not to seek treatment. Despite his popularity as the head of Seattle’s grunge rock movement, Kurt Cobain battled depression and died by suicide in 1994 at the age of 27.

Russell Brand

From stand-up comedy to MTV to Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Despicable Me, he’s done it all. Brand, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a child, was fired from MTV and the BBC after making provocative remarks. Katy Perry was his wife for less than two years. In 2007, Brand wrote his first autobiography, Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions, in which he revealed his battles with drug addiction.

Jane Pauley

Jane Pauley, a TV journalist, made her national debut at the age of 25 on NBC’s Today show. She went to work for Dateline on the network and eventually got her own talk program.

Pauley began to suffer from depression and mania around the age of 50. Steroids used to cure hives are likely to have triggered her symptoms, which were eventually diagnosed as bipolar disorder. In her best-selling memoir Skywriting: A Life Out of the Blue, she recounts her experiences.

“If we’re lucky,” she tells bp Magazine, “the next generation won’t drag around that personal stigma. They also are going to grow up with a wider array of medications that addresses whatever causes this malady of ours.”

Linda Hamilton

Linda Hamilton is well recognized for her roles in Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day as Sarah Connor. She also had a role in the Disney Channel series Beauty and the Beast. Despite her success in the workplace, she used drugs or alcohol to self-medicate, and her bipolar mood changes destroyed two marriages.

Hamilton battled bipolar disorder symptoms for twenty years, a period she refers to as the “lost years.” Though she was first concerned that therapy would impair her abilities, she is now on medicine and upfront about her bipolar disorder.

“Somebody needs to come out and make this okay for people to talk about and get help and take advantage of the resources,”  she said to the Associated Press.

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh, a great artist, created some of the world’s most well-known masterpieces, including The Starry Night. His challenging, quirky, and grumpy personality, on the other hand, is remembered.

There is no unanimity on what medical ailment caused van Gogh’s behavior, while epilepsy, depression, psychotic outbursts, and bipolar disorder are among the possibilities.

According to a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, “Van Gogh had previously experienced two separate bouts of reactive depression, and his history is obviously bipolar. Following both experiences of depression, I experienced continuous periods of increased vitality and excitement, first as evangelical, then as an artist.”

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf, a 20th-century English writer, and essayist are credited with pushing the frontiers of the novel with works like Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. During her life, she had mood swings and breakdowns.

Her conduct is explained in an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry: “Woolf had signs that would now be identified as a bipolar illness when she was 13 years old; she had mood swings ranging from severe depression to manic exhilaration, as well as psychotic episodes. Psychiatry, on the other hand, had little to offer her at the moment.”