Good Company

In this last episode of Season One, Wendy discusses creativity and intelligence with regard to bipolar disorder.

Be sure to check out Wendy's debut novel, Involuntary Hold, on Amazon and Audible!



International Helpline Info

 For those living outside the United States, I finally found some helpful information. The International Association for Suicide Prevention has a directory of crisis centers and helplines for over 50 countries! 

Just got to the internet and type in:

       findahelpline.com/i/iasp

 And it will bring you to a drop-down menu where you can input your country and region, and it will give you the information for your location. Granted, it doesn’t cover everywhere, but it’s a start!

** Remember if you, or a loved one, is in emotional crisis... Help is just a phone call away. Simply dial 9-8-8 for the Suicide and Crisis Hotline, or text "HOME" to 741741 to chat with someone via text 24/7 across the United States. **

Please contact us at bipolarforlife@myyahoo.com with any questions, suggestions, or comments.

Transcript

Bipolar for Life
Episode 10-Good Company

“At times, being bipolar can be an all-consuming challenge, requiring a lot of stamina and even more courage, so if you’re living with this illness and functioning at all, it’s something to be proud of, not ashamed of. They should issue medals along with the steady stream of medication,” that was Carrie Fisher from her book “Wishful Drinking” published in 2008.

 Welcome to Bipolar for Life, a show dedicated to survival. This podcast examines the day-to-day struggles with this life-threatening mental illness.

 I’m your host, Wendy Foard, and I have lived with bipolar disorder for 44 years now; it hasn’t always been pretty—I’ve survived several suicide attempts, four psychiatric hospitalizations, and one disastrous trip to rehab. Yet, I’m still here!

 Let me say at the outset that I am NOT a medical doctor. I am simply a seasoned manic depressive, trying to help others survive this deadly condition through information and shared experiences. 

 Tonight, for our last episode of season one, I thought we could talk about bipolar disorder and creativity. While bipolar disorder can have a negative effect on how a person performs daily tasks, it might also affect creativity in some people. Some studies have found a link between this condition and creativity. Whether there’s a true link between the two is hard to say for sure. For one thing, it depends on how you define creativity. Studies have used many different definitions, yet most researchers have compared a specific group of creative people, such as writers and musicians, to non-creative people.

 I understand why they used creatives vs. non-creatives. The definition of creativity is a hard one to put your finger on. I went searching for the definition and got vague answers in return. Merriam-Webster said it’s “the ability to create,” or as the American Heritage dictionary states, it is “having the ability or power to create.” 

Dictionary.com had a more in-depth explanation. They said that creativity is “the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, or interpretations.” 

Healthline suggests that creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves.”

 However, the idea that bipolar disorder somehow fuels creativity is unsettled, and even controversial. Critics argue that the concept of the “tortured artist” romanticizes a serious mental health condition that can drive people to suicide.  

 Some famous people we’ve lost to bipolar suicide are Ernest Hemingway and Naomi Judd, who died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Margot Kidder, died of drug and alcohol overdose, Sylvia Plath, died by sticking her head into a gas oven, and Virginia Woolf, died by filling her pockets with rocks and walking into a river… Just to name a few.

 More recently, many actors and musicians have mentioned that they have bipolar disorder publicly, and have discussed their arduous experiences. Some of these brave celebrities are Catherine Zeta-Jones, Demi Lovato, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Kanye West, Mariah Carey, Mel Gibson, Richard Dreyfuss, Russell Brand, Selena Gomez, and Sting. 

 Researchers have studied and discussed the link between creativity and mental illness for centuries. In fact, it was Aristotle who said, “No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness,” as far back as 350 BC.

 Parallels can be drawn between creativity and major mental health disorders such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, OCD and ADHD. 

There are cases that support the idea that mental illness can aid in creativity, but it is also generally agreed that mental illness does not have to be present for creativity to exist. 

 The earliest studies to explore the connection between creativity and bipolar disorder came out in the 1970’s and 80’s. Experts based some of their early research on the biographies of artists and writers. Writers Virginia Woolf, Edgar Allan Poe, and Sylvia Plath are all well known for having experienced symptoms of bipolar disorder. Artist Vincent van Gogh had severe episodes of mania and depression. 

 One small study in 1974 involved comparing 15 successful creative writers to 15 noncreative people. More than 70% of the writers had a psychiatric disorder compared with 20% of noncreative people. 

A 2015 study found that people with a higher risk for bipolar disorder were also more likely to work as artists. 

A 2017 research review found more cases of mood disorders in creative people, but with mixed results, and a small 2022 review of 12 studies didn’t find people with bipolar disorder to be any more creative than those without it. However, results of the creativity tests were actually lower when people experienced depressive episodes. 

 I don’t know about you, but I find my creativity is much lower in a depressive state. Instead of expanding outward like mania, depression turns your focus inward. So, I wrote contemplative poetry when I was just starting my depressive episodes, but as I fall deeper and deeper into the pit of despair, I am unable to work on anything… which I find frustrating. 

I mention this because, I believe, that any study on the connection between creativity and bipolar disorder depends a lot on what mood the subjects are in when tested, and results should reflect this fluctuation. But that’s my opinion.

 Dr. Simon Kyaga, global medical director with Medical Affairs Professional Society, stated, “In my mind, at this stage, there is an unquestionable link between bipolar disorder and creativity.” Kyaga has published large-scale investigations into the link between having a psychiatric diagnosis and entering the creative professions. 

  In one study significant for its size and scope, Kyaga and colleagues analyzed data from three hundred thousand patients hospitalized with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and unipolar depression between 1973 and 2003. They found that people with bipolar disorder are significantly over-represented in the arts and sciences. 

 An even larger study in 2018 published in The British Journal of Psychiatry, looked at the question from a different perspective. Their conclusion was, people who studied one of the creative arts in high school or college, had a higher probability of developing bipolar or another serious mental health disorder. 

Dr. Tiffany Greenwood, an associate professor at University of California, San Diego, writes that while slight mood swings, impulsiveness, openness and unusual thinking patterns are linked to creativity, severe bipolar symptoms are not. 

Other research supports the fact that mild bipolar traits can enhance creativity. One study examined this connection with 350 participants (135 with bipolar disorder, 102 creative and 103 non-creative controls), using personality questionnaires, cognitive tests, and creative achievement evaluations. The results, published in The Journal of Psychiatric Research in 2022, bolsters the idea moderate levels of certain traits, like being upbeat or having mood swings, are linked to creativity. But when these traits become too extreme, they can be harmful and lead to negative outcomes. 

 Creativity, of course, is not limited to the arts. In a small 2012 study, Dr. Nancy Andreasen of the University of Iowa, found that scientists and artists exhibited “strikingly similar” patterns of brain activity while performing a word association task during an MRI. 

She explains, “Creative people are better at recognizing relationships, making associations and connections, and seeing things… that other people don’t see.”

 Though the research is limited, some studies suggest there is a preliminary link between bipolar disorder and above average intelligence. It seems many people who are bipolar had a higher-than-average intelligence before presenting symptoms.  

Bipolar disorder is linked to a specific kind of intelligence. The connection between intelligence and bipolar disorder is largely seen in those with a high verbal IQ. This type of intelligence is associated with creativity, abstract reasoning, and comprehension through spoken and written words. To that end, studies suggest that bipolar disorder is 10 times more common among those in artistic fields than the general population.

 A 2018 Swedish study found that straight ‘A’ students were nearly 4 times more likely than their peers to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder when they reached adulthood. This was particularly true for males.

However, the same study found that some of the students with the lowest academic grades also showed increased chances of the condition. 

Yet, when looking at all the contributing factors, researchers concluded that exceptional intelligence was indeed linked to the prevalence of bipolar disorder.

 A 2018 study with members of American MENSA also found that people with high intelligence were more likely to report symptoms of bipolar disorder when compared to the national average. 

 Bipolar disorder doesn’t seem to impact your intelligence, but it can affect some aspects of your cognition. Cognition, or cognitive functioning, refers to our mind’s thinking process. This includes the processes that perform language, memory and learning, visual perception, information processing, and more. 

 Cognition allows you to acquire information, understand events and surroundings. For instance, memory, logic, and visual processing are examples of cognitive functions. Intelligence refers more to the ability to learn something new, build associations between things you’ve learned, and process and adapt to new situations. 

 Episodes of mania and depression in bipolar disorder may lead to impairments in cognitive functions. These are temporary changes to your thinking or perceiving processes. For example, a depressive episode may cause you to have trouble focusing on a task or remembering something. An episode of mania may cause you to engage in movements that serve no purpose, like fidgeting, toe tapping, or rapid speech. Sometimes you may experience psychosis or lose touch with reality. 

But research shows that despite these neurocognitive impairments, intelligence in people with bipolar disorder is NOT affected by the onset of the condition. 

 In a 2019 study published in Molecular Psychiatry, the Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research showed an overlap in genes involved in mental illness and intelligence. Olav Smeland and colleagues found that risk genes for bipolar disorder were, indeed, associated with higher intelligence.

Smeland and co-authors investigated DNA from more than 400 thousand people, including 20 thousand patients with bipolar disorder, and 35 thousand patients with schizophrenia. They found 12 risk genes for bipolar disorder, of which 75% were associated with higher intelligence. In schizophrenia, there was also a genetic overlap with intelligence, but a higher proportion of those genes were associated with cognitive impairment. 

 Bipolar disorder can lead to more extreme experiences, yet it’s these extremes that give the artist a larger palette to work with when expressing themselves. The depths of depression, the incredible highs of mania, and the heightened imagination of psychosis give the artist with bipolar disorder a larger scope of life experience with which to work. 

 Great creative works reach people through the way they make them feel, think, and see the world. Someone with bipolar disorder can bring that out of themselves because of their deeply felt emotions and heightened insight. The more unique the person, the more unique their art. This uniqueness makes their art stand out. People with bipolar disorder are quite often more sensitive to the world around them, and these powerful sensitivities are expressed through an art form. They can touch so many with their particular art, because of the ways they are touched by the “fine madness” which fuels creativity. 

 However, mental illness can be a very lonely journey. Even when someone diagnosed with bipolar disorder has a supportive network of people, the disease is essentially invisible to others, because it’s internal… not external. 

 So many famous creatives have been touched by bipolar disorder, but I’m only going to list a few. As you listen to the names, I want you to think about what they have contributed to the world with their special form of madness. Serious mood disorders such as bipolar may be the price humans have to pay for our intelligence and creativity. Here are some people who have bravely paid that price…

Jim Carey, Rosemary Clooney, Ned Beatty, Robert Downey, Jr., Connie Francis, Vivien Leigh, Burgess Meredith, Ben Stiller, Tracey Ullman, Robin Williams, Jonathan Winters, Ludwig Von Beethoven, Francis Ford Coppola, George Frederick Handel, Robert Schumann, Ted Turner, Buzz Aldrin, Larry Flynt, Peter Gabriel, Jimi Hendrix, Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, Darryl Strawberry, Dick Cavett, Jane Pauley, Mark Twain, Art Buchwald, Florence Nightingale, Kurt Cobain, Charles Dickens, Stephen Fry, Joseph Conrad, Jack London, Edvard Munch, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Walt Whitman, and Isaac Newton.

 Why spend so much time mentioning all these people? Well, first of all, I hope you heard all the different contributions each has made; from sports, music, and writing to astronauts. There is no limit as to what your art may be! 

Secondly, I recited the list to let you know that you too, as a bipolar sufferer, may add a verse to the poem that is the human experience. All you need do is find your medium as an artist; be it words, a box of paints, or a test tube. 

And lastly, to let you know--that despite the nagging negative voice inside your head, you are in very good company. 

 That’s all for this season of Bipolar for Life. I hope that you have enjoyed the adventure as much as I, and maybe learned something along the way. I know I did! Please join me for the Season Two adventure, as I will be researching comorbidities of bipolar disorder. 

 And as this is the last show, I’m going to take one last stab at shamelessly advertising my novel “Involuntary Hold” which is on sale at Amazon. It will soon be an audiobook available on Audible, read by the extremely talented Hedy Parks. 

 “Lou Henderson wakes to find herself bound to a bed by hard leather cuffs. She is convinced she’s been abducted and being held captive, when a nurse informs her she’s actually on suicide watch in the hospital psych ward. Despite her vigorous protests, Lou must remain on the ward for the legally enforced 72 hours. Lost and alone, Lou befriends an experienced psych ward traveler named Mel. The two girls get along famously and soon become roommates. Mel helps Lou navigate daily life on the ward—meds, doctors, and therapy. "

"While Lou battles a depression deep enough to keep her mired in the psychiatric system for years, Mel conceals a shocking secret vital to Lou’s very sanity.”  

 That’s “Involuntary Hold” by Wendy Foard available now on Amazon. Don‘t be the only one on your block that doesn’t know the shocking secret!

 As always, thanks so much for listening and be safe in all your travels. See you soon, with Season Two of “Bipolar for Life.”