Bipolar Celebrities: Does It Make Them More Creative

Depression may have been dubbed the “common cold of mental health,” but the mental health buzzword these days is bipolar disorder, possibly because it's often associated with creativity, verve, and charisma. Sometimes called manic depression, the disorder affects about 2.5% of the adult U.S. population and can cause extreme mood changes—from manic episodes of very high energy to extreme lows of depression.

Bipolar disorder is difficult to diagnose, even for the experts; that may explain why the media feel free to invoke the disorder in the wake of a celebrity’s erratic behavior or substance abuse. While some celebs have been outspoken about their struggles with bipolar disorder, others allude mysteriously to manic depression. Here, see which celebrities, past and present, have been linked to bipolar disorder.