Stephen Fry's Public Service Announcement

I believe that I'm on the lower end of the bipolar parallel. I become more agitated than manic. For instance, when I feel "high," I might spend too much money, maybe a hundred dollars over what I should. That's because I Need This Thing. It's only after I've spent this money that I realize that I've gone a bit overboard. Sure, it hasn't been a thousand dollars on a new appliance, but it's just enough to get the uh-oh signal once I review my monthly spending. While my emotional "status" might be simply a whisper of full-blown bipolar disorder, while I might be just on the cusp of where the "ups" begin, I can relate to how the neurological plug gets pulled and the world becomes exaggerated. Or it spins around and crashes.

Here's how actor Stephen Fry describes his own bipolar disorder:

"I approach it from the point of view of one who suffers, according to a psychiatrist at least, from cyclothymia which is sometimes called 'bipolar light'.

I take that to mean I have most of the benefits of hypomania, a slightly less psychotic form of energy, vitality and exuberance and some, one hopes, creativity.There are certainly spending sprees but happily very little promiscuity. That's just my good fortune in this regard."