Famous People with Bipolar Disorder

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Ludwig van Beethoven
Known for his brilliant gift for composing amazing music which contrasts to his difficult life at home, Ludwig van Beethoven not only suffered from deafness, but he also from bipolar disorder. Beethoven became deaf in an early age, which is believed to have been caused by the bipolar disorder itself. He also suffered intermittently during his life with bouts of serious fevers and headaches. Sadly, as he got older, the disease began to affect him more and more. He often pondered suicide, a common symptom of bipolar disorder. He went through a pessimistic emotional period too, which had a negative impact on the output of his compositions. There was also degradation in his manners as well as his personal appearance, which are all symptoms of a depression (caused by bipolar disorder) which caused him to have rough relationships because of his unstable arguments and delusions.





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Vincent Van Gogh
The well renowned painter of Dutch origin Vincent Van Gogh has to his credit more that 2,000 artworks made up of 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches. However his life was characterized by a series of physical and psychological illness. Van Gogh experienced depression and moments of bipolar emotions, a situation which led him to act hostile and aggressive at times. He could sit to write for long hours, which explains his about 800 letters to his brother, used today for explaining his works. Considering the belief that depression was the force behind his art works, and coupled with these characteristics, the affirmation that he suffered bipolar disorder makes sense. Van Gogh also suffered other illnesses, which may have contributed to his depression. He born with a brain lesion, which was worsened by his use of a drug used to improve the sight for some bright colors, resulting in epileptic seizures. To relieve the epilepsy and depression, he often drank alcohol and, that even worsened his epilepsy. He died after an infection from a self-inflicted gunshot.






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Napoleon Bonaparte
Perhaps the greatest French political and militar leader of the 19th century, Napoleon was known for his intelligence and strong personality. He was admired by his tutors at the time for his application of Mathematics in real life, also in geography and history. He demonstrated his intelligence in his adulthood as he applied it to his military strategies, calculating his moves carefully, which gave him the many victories. Yet, Napoleon was believed to have suffered bipolar disorder, due to its aggressiveness and moodiness, though there is not enough evidence to support this belief. His extreme intelligence might also be attributed to bipolar disorder, as many believe there is a relation between bipolar and intelligence.





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Elvis Presley
Even after his sad demise, Elvis Presley's fans still remember him as the legendary star of rock ‘n' roll. However his destructive and self-abusing behavior has led experts to declare Elvis was suffering from a bipolar disorder. Another element of Elvis' life that coincides with the definition of a bipolar disorder was his extremely active life. Many psychologists place Elvis' chronic depression, drug abuse and eating disorders into the category of a personality disorder, and say the rock star was not aware of how serious his condition really was.





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Jean-Claude Van Damme
The Belgian-born actor, who achieved stardom in 1988 with the film Bloodsport, suffered a manic-depressive disease during her teenager, which he was compensating with very hard training. Jean-Claude Van Damme started using cocaine in 1995, during the filming of Sudden Death. He entered a month-long rehabilitation program in 1996 but left it after only one week and he spent up to $10,000 a week on cocaine. Following the filming of the 1998 film Knock Off, Van Damme was diagnosed with rapid cycling bipolar disorder after becoming suicidal and started treatment on the mood stabilizer, sodium valproate. A turning point toward improvement of his health came from late 1997 onwards, after having finished divorce procedures, from his fourth marriage.





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Axl Rose, the lead singer of Guns N' Roses, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, though he doubts he has the condition. Specialists argue that his behavior proves it. He was arrested several times for assault in his teenage years. He also had disagreements with many of his bandmates. However, according to Rose, he is just very emotional and easily got upset. Besides this, Rose is explosive and abused alcohol as a youth. So, these are clear signs of bipolar disorder. Later, by medical recommendation, Rose had undergone an anger management program which included lithium ingestion.





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At 16, his family's troubles affected actor Jim Carrey, as he became very violent. He got very depressed and would not talk to anyone. At a point when his mother was sick, he used to hit himself on the walls and let himself fall on the stairs. Later, he would suffer from depression even at the peak of success. He later admitted to a newspaper that depression was the motivation behind the comedies he produced. Following from this, many specialists attributed his depression to bipolar disorder, so he was put on the anti-depressant drug Prozac, which he used for a long time. Happily Carrey managed to get off the Prozac and now resorts to faith to deal with his depression and disorders.





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In a 1999 interview with GQ and later in a 2001 interview with Hollywood actor Ben Stiller stated that he had bipolar disorder, an illness that, he said, ran in his family. However, in two interviews in November and December 2006, Stiller claimed that this earlier interview's comment about the disorder were false and he just was kidding. Oh, oh! Maybe another symptom from bipolar disorder?





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Catherine Zeta-Jones was briefly hospitalized in 2011 while she battled bipolar disorder due to stress over husband Michael Douglas' throat cancer diagnosis. The 43-year-old actress, who just finished treatment on her illness credited her family and close friends for helping her overcome the ordeal.





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Ted Turner
American billionaire media mogul, founder of CNN and former owner of MLB's Atlanta Braves and NBA team Atlanta Hawks was said to have suffered bipolar disorder. He is known to have suffered bouts of depression throughout his adult life. His first battle with depression was when he caught his father with a doctor's wife. He suffered another round of depression when his marriage failed. Now days, he takes lithium pills as treatment for his depression.