Experiencing Bipolar Disorder

Kay Jamison discusses the highs and lows of manic depression (bipolar disorder), the link between mania and creativity, and the heritability of the disorder.

I think it's very hard for people who haven't been depressed or haven't been manic to really get a sense of what it's like to experience these illnesses. It's qualitatively different, it's not just quantitatively different from depression of the kind, the ordinary blues of life, the downside, the day or two of feeling out of sorts. It's really much more than that, it's really everything that you value about yourself as a human being comes grinding to a halt, your thinking slows, your moods are just grey and flat and irritable and despairing and hopeless, and you sleep, usually sleep much more or sleep less, but your sleep is profoundly altered.