Capturing the Highs and Lows of Bipolar Disorder Through Photography

Nice to see and hear the perspectives of sufferers.

Once again, let's trapes out the bipolar's in front of the camera. Let's see these unusual beasts once again in their natural habitat. We long to understand them. To reach out a kind hand to them. Blah, Blah, Blah. Matthieu is happy - he got published. He's true goal. Us, we're still bipolar whether the camera is on or the camera is off. Our illness is still in us. Depression that goes so deep it actually hurts. Grabbing our head our body's wracked up in the fetal position. So much blackness and we can't even cry. Mania that confounds us. Yep, it started when I was a 13-14 boy. I tried to say something but teen boys didn't have anything like that in the 70's. Fast forward through alcohol and drugs. Somehow I'm not dead. I tried though 20+ Valium. At that time I did't know too many benzos can have the opposite effect. Self harm and got the scars to share at story time during my 7 hospitalizations. That always happens by the way. The patients at sometime will gather around and trade war stories sometimes trying to out do each other. Why is Bipolar the flavor of the month? Being bipolar, I belong to a couple of mental health organizations. I get just about anything in the media dealing with bipolar and it's everyday. Photojournalism, mental illness and crime - was he/she bipolar (I bet he/she was). Hollywood tries but has never gotten it right because it's too complicated. And Matthieu didn't get it right because it's too complicated. I'm an individual not a diagnosis.

As a carer/wife of someone who has Type 1 manic episodes, these photos capture so many moments that, as a couple, we have been through. The isolation for my husband in an institution - I was only allowed to visit for 1 hour a week; the creative outbursts during a Scale 10 manic episode going on for days or sometimes weeks; the 'blur' of manic memories; the inappropriate behaviour that alarms people; the belief that there is a portal to another universe and that 'space' is inhabited during an episode. Thank you for putting Bipolarity into a visual context - maybe now others will begin to understand. Be kind, be practical and be patient.

I've struggled with mIxed state bipolar disorder all my life. Meds and a great therapist saved my life. I found the photos truly mediocre. The better idea would've been to have the bipolar subjects shoot the pictures.

One of the more challenging things was to accept the havoc and emotional mayhem that I had created when I was cycling. It had harmful impact on those around me. This realization was sobering. I connected with the photos. For me they captured the fogginess, the uncertainty, and the anxiety.

p.s. If you're wondering, I have BP1 and PTSD--hospitalizations, many meds, self-harm, great highs and lows for a long time. I was diagnosed with ptsd in my mid-30s and BP1 in my mid-40s. Not an easy road, but a continuing one with lots of listening to others. I am 65, divorced, live in public housing, and am happy now.

Don't forget the part where they can be cunning, vindictive and crush the very soul of people who care for and love them due to disassociative emotional states, imaginary take on circumstances and impulse control problems. "The only aggression I see is aggression against themselves..." is a total get out of jail free line. Firstly if mental aggression counts that is just not true. Let's not paint a "only harm within" picture. The article takes "the messiah" angle - look what they "endure" and how. Unfortunately "martyr and messiah complexes" come hand and hand with this disorder "You don't understand me but God does". It is important to dispel stigma around mental illness, and the photos are beautiful, but within that but don't assume that everyone is a Saint or visionary because of their disorder and can do no wrong within or aside from their illness. Bi-polar people are people too - with all a typical person's warts and all.

Would be useful to mention, at least, that there are excellent medications available to treat bipolar I and II, with a wide variety to try, and that can make the disorder quite manageable. And one does not lose one's creativity in the process of finding more livable mood(s). Moreover, talk therapy, cognitive therapy, behavioral therapy, dialectical therapy, and others have all been shown to be very helpful. One can enjoy the plusses of biopolar, including increased appreciation of the beauty, compassion, and happiness of those who live with it. In that sense, these photographs and captions do not capture all the realities of bipolar, although the swings without meds or therapy are more sensational and photogenic. In addition, a locked psychiatric ward is often standard for a short period and can be quite therapeutic in providing an environment that is safer, somewhat less triggering, and more focused on helping immediate crises and making plans for outside. Typically, in my experience, patients have time in fresh air. At first they may be accompanied but gradually become more independent. After hospitalization they may go to a day program that involves living at home and traveling back and forth--no locks. And of course, most people with the disorder, either I or II, lead very stable, creative, nonviolent, and happy lives. They are be your neighbors, doctors, tax preparers, or plumbers. Please remember that the very highs and very lows do not "capture" many of us.

Echoing other commenters. Most bipolar symptoms (or baseline) are marked by profound depression which equates to personal disability and self harm. These images only perpetuate the stigma that mentally ill people are dangerous. The manic bits are made sexy by those who do not suffer. You'd be surprised to learn how many people around you are quite mentally ill but able to "pass" with treatment and years of practicing to look like everyone else. It's not acceptable to come out yet. I'd rather tell my boss I have end-stage AIDS or cancer than bipolar.

I am bipolar. It only took 35 years to get an accurate diagnosis. Two psychiatrists made inaccurate diagnoses. When there was, finally, an accurate diagnosis, I immediately went on medication. Suddenly, my life made sense. Suddenly, I discovered I'm a nice person. I became open about my mental illness after a jump in dosage of my medication caused me to come flying out of the closet and announce to everyone I could find that I'm bipolar. That's not how I planned things, but I'm far more comfortable with myself now that I'm dancing in the center of the room rather than hiding in the closet. The experiences of each person with bipolar disorder are different. I've never had a psychotic break during a manic episode. I did some strange things before being properly diagnosed. Like the time I was in the middle of a trial, I'm an attorney, and I threw a pile of documents at a witness. Now that I'm medicated, my manic episodes involve cooking. I become hyper focused and I have to bake or cook whatever it is that I'm focused on. I hate my manic episodes because I feel like I'm on a freight train going 90 miles an hour down a mountain and there's a 60 degree curve ahead of this train. I'm terrified of my depressive episodes. That's when I get suicidal. That I'm still alive is the result of divine intervention.

The lows far outweigh the highs with this disorder. I have bipolar disorder two, and know that it is a day in, day out struggle to keep level. This is literally a full time job: not going nuts. When you have this disorder, you impact everyone around you with it whether you want to or not. One key factor in stopping or arresting negative behavior is having a good friend or relative who can tell you when you are careening off the tracks. This is especially important for me and many others because we are not aware that we are veering off in a bad direction. Unfortunately, many people assume that this is some kind of voluntary behavior and do not recognize it for the serious illness that it is. Even so, try to explain to your child why you just went out back and broke all of the dishes in the house.

I really hope this documentary does not romanticize people with BPD who are not getting the treatment that they need. I am a behavioral health professional. Noncompliance is a major problem but those who get all the help they need can live full and productive lives. Read anything by Kay Jamison who is an internationally recognized expert and also has BPD.

Bipolar has degrees of severity and is related to schizophrenia. A complete bipolar cycle varies. Some experience full cycles in a few days/weeks while mine is 11 months. My psychotherapist helped me self-manage without medication for the first 11 years after diagnosis. After a particularly brutal "low" or depression, I added medication under a LPN and psychiatrist to psychotherapy, then was able to discontinue medication after about 2 years. My talking doc eventually let me fly solo with a suggestion for a 50,000 mile check up every year or so. I've successfully self-managed without regular talking or medication assistance for many years but this 21 year journey has been challenging. I've held steady long-term employment as a successful licensed professional, been married to an amazing woman for 36 years and raised two kids. This mental disorder is brutal. Manic highs offer creativity but if neglect getting 5 hours of sleep a night, it ends with a horrible crash after 5 months of being "up". The depressions are even more challenging to self-manage. My medical team gave me an insight equally applicable to "normals". Learn to manage the ego. When manic, my ego brain lies and tempts me with grandiose possibilities. When depressed, my ego also lies and I must avoid self-loathing and doubt. Best wishes to bipolars and their loved ones. It's a hard life but what life isn't?

The portrayal of being bipolar in the series Homeland by Clare Danes was perfect. In the manic phase you are brilliant; you can fly, see connections, feel awakened and strong as reality departs and you embrace true madness; the down cycle is the pit of hell. In the down cycle it is like everyone you love has died all at once. You are alone in your agony, and if you have suffered an actual loss, a death, a divorce... it goes on for months. It is a place where suicide whispers in your ear, telling you to end it all, to seek that final release. Your mental state is alarmingly clear, and you become a danger to yourself because of it. The bipolar, in general, do not attempt suicide, they succeed.

When will we decide, as a society, to destigmatize mental illness? Thousands of people could avoid addiction disease if they had been diagnosed and treated for conditions like bipolar disease. Where is the "Just say no" or "smoking is hazardous to your health " public awareness campaign that could help to remove the shame that accompanies a diagnosis? Perhaps presidential candidates can make this a priority. BTW - can we stop using mental illness as a punch line or denigrating descriptors? Your friend is not "OCD," or acting bipolar; and mass murderers can be just plain evil, not always mentally ill--Las Vegas shooter.

While the writing has real empathy in it, the photos do an injustice I think, in their one-dimensional point of view through a distortion lens. I have several bipolar people in my life, including my husband of 15 years, and the photos do not honor the incredible hyper-focus, clarity and powerful observational skills that I've observed in persons with the condition. Especially when a proper medication balance is obtained, those skills, along with the gifts of creativity and intelligence-driven insight warrant more appreciation. The manic and hypo-manic, and the deep depressive times are certainly worthy of portrayal. But that's not the "norm" even for unmedicated bipolar folks, and it does them a disservice to reinforce the stereotypes with these images, eerily beautiful as the photos may be.

Without the article and explanation, I would never know that I'm looking at portraits of people with bipolar disorder.

I am dismayed and saddened by the way that the Times repeatedly covers bipolar disorder in a way that highlights the most stereotypical form of this affliction: the big highs, the deep lows, the madness. Some of us— many of us!— have Bipolar II (the calmer flavor of BPD), are well managed with medication, and even when we had no meds, didn’t find our reality so bent and warped as people might imagine. My BPD manifests as depressive episodes that cycle against (and sometimes mix with) periods of blessed gratitude for life and capacity to organize and think clearly. I hold a job. I am a reasonable and stable person. Think about whether you know someone like me. I’m a highly creative individual and my imagination is pretty “out there”, it’s true. There are days and weeks where my thinking is especially lucid and associative. Days and weeks where I struggle with anxiety and sticky thoughts. Same goes for many folks who are graced with a neurotypical brain. The only difference between me and so many of you is that my brain switches, so that my experience of these states is more complete and homogenous. And my awareness of them has been honed through years of introspection. None of this is particularly interesting; no one ever makes mental health awareness-raising movies or writes articles about mild weirdos who are a little dark and sometimes talk fast at meetings. But maybe they should.

It sure was no collection of pretty pictures with my aunt. My aunt was a severe manic-depressive for 40 years, and it was the a great relief to my parents when she finally died -- but even in the nursing home she was ranting and raving about the end of the world and claiming she was Jesus (she suffered from the messiah complex). Once my mom got roped into taking her to the state psychiatric hospital and my aunt, thinking she was God, tried to prove to the world she was God by opening the car door and was trying to throw herself out of the speeding car and onto the Interstate -- only a stubborn seat belt kept her inside the car until my mom could safely slow down. Later my mom confided in me that she thought she was going to be killed in car wreck because of that.

After living next door to a person with bipolar who has also been involuntarily committed for treatment, there is nothing glamorous or creative about it. Bipolar people are not highly intelligent and creative because of the disorder...they are in spite of it. Those with support systems (families, therapists) who refuse to accept less than full compliance with treatment, who expect boundaries to be respected, and who simply expect more - provide the structure where the disorder can be managed and accepted, without defining the person. Unfortunately, my neighbor is "Bipolar" - versus a person with Bipolar. We live in her torment. The photos fail to show the toll the disorder takes on children, parents, neighbors, coworkers, and others. The US has the highest rates of mental illness in the world yet we lack a comprehensive Mental Health policy. That in itself is insane.

Capturing the experiences of those who must live with a bipolar relative would be an interesting next exercise for Mr Zellweger. Perhaps I could help him set up his camera on the staircase landing when my sister strops taking her meds and attempts to throw my elderly father off. That would make for some interesting art, perhaps enhanced by real blood splatters.

Liz Obert, the Portland, Oregon photographer, did a powerful portrait series called “Dualities” that readers may also find compelling. She documented the highs and lows, public and private aspect of bipolar using the words of each subject.

Let’s see if we can encourage the same kind of application with epilepsy, and not just during a seizure, but all the fall out associated with it.

This a good attempt, but working with select individuals can create new stereotypes, due to the tendency of people who do not have a mental disorder to take selected "testimonies" and create new tropes. Even within the confines of a rarefied group, aren't these just snapshots of one second out of their ongoing, variable experience?

One can be creative with Bipolar I, too. Even more so as Bipolar I has more manic phases, e.g. Van Gogh. Vulnerable people with beautiful souls expressing themselves through art. Bless them.

It would be interesting if the article included information about whether these people had Bipolar I or II. I suspect most, if not all have Bipolar II.