As a facilitator and member of a bipolar support group, I know that many of our members want to keep their mental illness a secret. Some have already been punished by employers when they were open about it. But as an artist, I don't feel the label "bipolar" or "manic depressive" hurts me at all.
In fact, being a bipolar artist fits many people's stereotype of what an artist is: a madman/woman whose creativity is enhanced by her mental illness. Now, that makes it easy for me to "come out" as bipolar, because it's not going to hurt sales of my paintings.
But a more important reason to be open about having a mental illness is to help fight the prejudice people have against us. There is no reason not to hire us, befriend us, date us, or marry us. We may have some special needs, but so would an employee who was deaf, blind or handicapped in another way. And surprisingly, many of us with mental illness have no special needs at all. We are managing our illness fine, thank you.
One of the artistic advantages of being bipolar, is that during our hypomanic state, we are filled with energy, enthusiasm, confidence and creativity. This is a state we would all like to be in forever, but unfortunately, it too often leads to full-blown mania for some, and depression for others.
For more information on bipolar disorder, check out the NAMI (National Alliance of Mental Illness) website. A good book about creativity and bipolar disorder is Touched with Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison.
