BIPOLAR STAR BLOG

  • Mental Illness Is Not a Weakness

    by Curtis Hier
    Tony Soprano: "Let me tell ya something. Nowadays, everybody’s gotta go to shrinks, and counselors, and go on Sally Jessy Raphael and talk about their problems. What happened to Gary Cooper? The strong, silent type. That was an American. He wasn’t in touch with his feelings. He just did what he had to do."

  • LBJ Was Bipolar (and Narcissistic) AF

    by C. George Hier
    Some have suggested it might be prudent to appoint a presidential psychiatrist. Seriously. Given the stakes, and given the 25th amendment options for dealing with an incapacitated president. It makes more sense than having professionals who have no contact with the president violate the Goldwater Rule and amateurs giving their amateur opinions. The problem is that bipolar can’t be detected during periods of remission. And hypomania can be beneficial in facing the workload of the presidency.

  • The Sun Also Sets

    by C. George Hier

    The sun set on Ernest Hemingway’s life and career at the relatively young age of 61. Clearly he had bipolar disorder. And famously so. But he would not have wanted to be the poster boy for bipolar disorder that Vincent Van Gogh has seemingly been.

    Hemingway probably would have agreed with Alec Baldwin’s character on NBC’s hit series 30 Rock: “I believe that when you have a problem, you talk it over with  your priest, or your tailor, or the mute elevator porter at your men's club. Then you take that problem and you crush it with  your mind vice.” 

  • Hiatus is Over, I'm Back!

    by C. George Hier

    So, I have been on hiatus from this blog for the past five months. It can be concerning when a sufferer of bipolar ghosts out for a while. But I've been been doing very well. I've been busy, and luckily, not manically so. 

    I'm coming close to the end of what we writers call a WIP (work in progress). It's a non-fiction #ownvoices book. I have to put the finishing touches on it and get a proposal ready.

     

  • Voltaire’s Definition of “Madness”

    by C. George Hier
    Many people are aware of Einstein’s definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. But Voltaire seems to have had a pretty good grasp of mania: “Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively.”  My initial manic episode clearly exhibited the former. 

  • My Manic Brush with the Law

    by C. George Hier

    I’m not embarrassed to let people know I have bipolar disorder. I never have been, ever since I got the diagnosis in my 23rd year as a teacher. But my brush with the law is something I kept very quiet about until now that I’ve retired. Just as many Americans have criminal records as have college diplomas. But that’s not true of teachers. They all have diplomas. But few have criminal records.

     

  • The Adams Family: Triumphs and Groans

    by Curtis Hier

    This post was published as a guest post on the International Bipolar Foundation blog on June 23.

    Great success and great misery come with the bipolar life, and the Adamses had their share of both. President John Adams is believed by many to have had bipolar II disorder. Thomas Jefferson described him as “sometime absolutely mad.” But Jefferson had a bitter and intense political rivalry with Adams.

  • Bipolar Survivors Don’t Get Standing Ovations

    by Curtis Hier

    My last official act as a teacher before retiring was to attend one last commencement ceremony. A popular teacher who had been out all year battling cancer spoke to the graduating class. Upon being introduced, he was received with a standing ovation. I stood. I then sat and admired his speech. I got a little tearful. And then I wondered.

    Why don’t bipolar survivors get standing ovations?

  • I'm Not Alone -- There's a Lot of Loneliness

    by Curtis Hier

    Loneliness is deadly.  Quite literally.  And I am alone a lot.  And lonely even more.

    I was a physically and socially awkward kid from the beginning.  But not as awkward, in retrospect, as my self image told me to be.  As I got old and fat, I wished that I hadn’t been as shy and unconfident as I had been. 

  • You Have to Worry About Your Medical Records

    by Curtis Hier
    In 1971, a defense analyst named Daniel Ellsberg leaked a top secret document critical of the Vietnam War to the New York Times.  This prompted men on Nixon’s payroll to break in and search Ellsberg’s file in his psychiatrist’s office in order to find anything embarrassing or discrediting. 

  • Where Did All My Money Go?

    by Curtis Hier
    Prominent psychiatrist Jan Fawcett has instructed spouses of those in manic episodes to “close the bank account and wait it out.”  I wish I could have had someone to close my bank account.

  • Falling Through the Cracks

    by Curtis Hier
    During my first trip to the hospital for my bipolar mania, I don’t recall the psychiatrist ever saying anything about bipolar, much less anything ...
    Posted in Big Pharma