Creative People Could Be More Susceptible To Bipolar Disorder

9 May 2011

Robert Ashton

Catherine Zeta-Jones is the most recent high profile celebrity to complain of suffering from Bipolar Disorder.

She joins household names like Stephen Fry, Sting, Adam Ant and Kurt Cobain who have all been known to suffer from the condition.

Clinical psychologists throughout Britain report a huge increase in the number of people who are requesting help because they believe they are suffering from bipolar.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists estimates that the disorder affects one in every 100 people at some point in their lives.

"Celebrity could itself be considered a mental illness - delusions of grandeur and a paranoia that prompts people to wear sunglasses at night," said Robert Ashton, author of I know somebody like that and mental health campaigner.

The temptation is to think that this is due to the increased publicity for the disorder but there may be a link with creativity.

In his BBC programme The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive Stephen Fry said that he ‘loved’ having the disorder because it provided ‘the energy and creativity that perhaps has made my career’.

"Our mood is like the pendulum inside a grandfather clock. Normally, it goes tick tock with boring regularity, but shake the clock and the pendulum will swing wildly, bang against the case and cause the clock to become inaccurate and unreliable.

We all get shaken from time to time and bi-polar disorder is how some diagnose what they consider to be the wild swinging that causes a loud knocking noise inside our body (the clock case); the brighter the ‘clock’ the narrower the case and the sooner it’ll start knocking if you shake it" said Robert Ashton.
 
Robert Ashton created the Norfolk Community Foundation in 2005. It is now close to having a £4 million endowment. In the past year the foundation has distributed more than £1 million in grants to voluntary and community groups.

Robert is also the author of I Know Someone Like That: One Man's Search for Normal in Norfolk. In the forward to the bookStephen Fry writes: "A magnificent counterblast to the stigma and prejudice, ignorance and fear that afflicts the realm of mental health in this country, I Know Someone Like That is a clear, readable and immensely touching account of how real people cope in the real world. I recommend this to everyone, for as the title suggests, we all know someone ..."

Robert donates half of the proceeds of I Know Someone Like That to the‘Time to Change let’s end mental health discrimination’ campaign.

Robert is also Managing Director of Ethecol - an ethical credit & debit card payments processing company - and the author of 12 best selling business guides (including How to be a Social Entrepreneur - Capstone 2010).