'The Secret Life Of A Manic Depressive'

BBC’s documentary The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive, shows gives an interesting look at how Bipolar Disorder takes control of one’s life. It was interesting to see how bipolar disorder effects everyday people and celebrities alike. It knows no barrier of age as it was shown in the documentary it is now being diagnosed in children. When the manic-depressive person is in a state of mania, they experience elevated highs in moods, goals, and energy, but when they are in a depressive state, they have extreme lows in mood, diminished interest in life, and can have recurrent suicidal thoughts with or without a plan for action (American Psychiatric Association., 2013). An interesting fact about manic depression is that it is a disease of the

In the documentary, Steven Fry even said he believes his undiagnosed mania helped him achieve the successes he has had in life. People who do not suffer from mania may perceive it to be something that aids a person in getting their work finished or performing better, but this cannot be further from the truth. Mania is described as, “elevated mood, inflated self-esteem, decreased need for sleep, racing thoughts, difficulty maintaining attention, increase in goal-directed activity, and excessive involvement in pleasurable activities. These manic symptoms significantly impact a person's daily living (Bressert, 2017).” Many people have described their mania as reckless behavior where they go on shopping sprees, they engage in risky sexual behavior, and they show off-putting behavior. Fry described a time when he was a boy in school that he was just known to have unruly behavior and would steal credit cards from his parent’s friends, and a mother that was interviewed said her one son used to walk on the A-frame of their roof (Wilson,

A family friend had suddenly committed suicide and no one knew why a well-liked 34-year-old father of 5 young children would do such a thing. In the months after his death, the family secret of bipolar disorder had been exposed. Looking back, I had no idea what that meant, but now I remember him as being the life of the party, he was focused on his automotive business and making it thrive, and it seemed like he was always on the go. Years later, I was speaking to his widow and she had told me how “his demons” would overcome him. There would be days at a time he would close himself off from the world and she did not understand at the time why this was happening. The silver-lining to his death is that it opened the conversation for the family about bipolar disorder, both of his brothers have since been diagnosed with bipolar as well as his son. While his death was a tragedy, it opened a door to prevent further