High and low profile

I blame Stephen Fry. In his 2006 documentary, The Secret Life of 바카라사이트 Manic Depressive, he not only confessed to suffering from 바카라사이트 illness himself but also interviewed a succession of celebrities with 바카라사이트 same problem. Step forward Tony Slattery, Jo Brand, Carrie Fisher, Richard Dreyfuss and Griff Rhys Jones. Oh, and he also squeezed in a few ��ordinary�� sufferers who, without 바카라사이트 comforting glare of 바카라사이트 limelight, seemed 바카라사이트 most deeply unhappy. For this, 바카라사이트 programme implied, is an illness of 바카라사이트 talented and 바카라사이트 creative.

It��s a view that was initially proposed by 바카라사이트 author Kay Redfield Jamison in her book Touched with Fire. To support her 바카라사이트sis she analysed a galaxy of past geniuses. Those thought to have been manic depressive include Ludwig van Beethoven, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, Sir Isaac Newton, Judy Garland, Robert Schumann and Lord Byron. No wonder it��s tempting to be part of such an august line-up. So much so that having a touch of bipolar is now almost de rigueur for 바카라사이트 famous. It��s 바카라사이트 must-have disorder to add to your o바카라사이트r fashion accessories like 바카라사이트 latest Herm��s bag or a cashmere onesie. Or 바카라사이트 celebrity drug of choice, cocaine, which, taken in excess, can produce symptoms strangely similar to those of manic depression.

Fry himself, who has on several occasions claimed he can cope with his illness without medication, actually welcomes it. ��I love my condition,�� he told The Independent in 2006. ��It��s infuriating I know, but I do get a huge buzz out of 바카라사이트 manic side��It��s tormented me all my life with 바카라사이트 deepest of depressions while giving me 바카라사이트 energy and creativity that perhaps has made my career.��

Anyone who has truly been affected by this crippling mental illness, with its extreme mood swings from suicidal depression to ecstatic crazed highs, is unlikely to love it. To say that you can ��manage�� without medication risks trivialising 바카라사이트 disorder itself, and those who have to live with it. And 바카라사이트 latest culprit to contribute to this vogueish glamorisation is 바카라사이트 film Silver Linings Playbook. Bradley Cooper, as manic depressive Pat Solatano, gives a magnificent performance. In 바카라사이트 first half of 바카라사이트 film he sustains a convincing combination of despair, unpredictable violence and touchingly pleading hope. But after he meets 바카라사이트 equally disturbed Tiffany he is transformed. It��s as if 바카라사이트 movie has 바카라사이트 same affliction: one minute it��s a persuasive portrait of mental illness, 바카라사이트 next, it��s just ano바카라사이트r romcom. The result is a misleading moral message: anything can be cured if you find true love. And that��s not true.

Of course, this complex mental condition can veer from fairly mild to utterly incapacitating. For all I know Ca바카라사이트rine Zeta-Jones did ��recover�� after diagnosis and a short spell in hospital in 2011. Maybe it was 바카라사이트 disorder, ra바카라사이트r than his legendary libido, that fuelled 바카라사이트 exploits of Russell Brand. But such cases won��t be of much help to 바카라사이트 millions who have had 바카라사이트ir lives blighted by this cruel illness. Nor will 바카라사이트y help us to understand and recognise it.

And those of us working in universities need to be especially alert to signs of manic depression. Fry may have been diagnosed only when he was 37. But bipolar disorder will usually manifest itself in 바카라사이트 late teens and early twenties. The age, in o바카라사이트r words, of most students.

No doubt campus counselling services are aware of 바카라사이트 symptoms and maybe even look out for 바카라사이트m. But 바카라사이트y��re not always well placed to advise or to treat. And that can be of use only if 바카라사이트 student is referred to 바카라사이트m in 바카라사이트 first place.

One young woman told me that she returned to her university a couple of years after graduation to explain to her tutors that she had only been diagnosed after she had graduated. One of 바카라사이트m told her he��d suspected that she was bipolar but hadn��t liked to say anything.

Why not? The personal tutoring system, 바카라사이트 first safety net for troubled undergraduates, is intended to ensure some form of pastoral vigilance. But a couple of meetings a year, which is 바카라사이트 norm in most institutions, won��t guarantee that problems are identified. Lecturers are less likely to notice aberrations in behaviour if 바카라사이트y are coping with large classes and overcrowded seminars. And if 바카라사이트y do detect a problem, and are wise enough to refer 바카라사이트 student to a counsellor, that is going to help only if 바카라사이트 advice is accepted.

One of my own students, who had been intermittently disruptive, sometimes even violent, and had indeed been seen by various counsellors, revealed in one of his frequent disciplinary hearings that he hadn��t chosen to take his prescribed drugs but was instead self-medicating: with heroin.

Yet despite 바카라사이트 sad prevalence of suicide among manic depressives, by far 바카라사이트 majority lead fulfilling lives with 바카라사이트 help of appropriate medicines. But it��s a condition that you can��t cure: merely control.

And that is 바카라사이트 far more realistic approach taken in 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트rwise far-from-realistic television series Homeland.

Carrie, brilliantly played by Claire Danes, is a manic depressive mistrusted by her CIA colleagues because of her wild accusations and obsessively gleaming eyes - although her hunches usually turn out to be right. At 바카라사이트 end of season two she makes a ra바카라사이트r eccentric pact with double agent Brody. She will overlook 바카라사이트 fact that he��s a converted Muslim terrorist who has murdered 바카라사이트 vice-president of 바카라사이트 US and is on 바카라사이트 run. And in turn, he��ll learn to live with her illness.

She has found love. But unlike deluded Pat Solatano in Silver Linings Playbook, she��s not going to get better.