' up ' the sufferer may experience intense
productivity and creativity . It ' s when the productivity breaks free of all rational constraints problems occur . One man I knew had , during an extended manic phase , built up a highly successful business whilst building his own home practically single handedly ( on two hours sleep a night ) whilst writing music and a novel . But his mania reached such a point that his enthusiasm became totally detached from reality . He spent wildly , lost his business , believed he was the son of God and could find no time or inclination to rest . Until the crash came . After he swung down again he could do nothing . I really mean nothing . He sat in the same chair in the hospital for twelve hours a day before sleeping in his bed . He had no energy , no
motivation for anything . The depression was just as complete as the high had been . This is what bipolar used to be . With true bipolar disorder it really is all or nothing . What is now called bipolar disorder used to be known as ' manic depression .' So how did ' manic depression ' come to be re-branded ' bipolar disorder ' and why does it matter ?
Inventing Illnesses
In the old days before medicine was driven so much by , what are essentially , enormous marketing companies , there would be a pre-existing illness and scientists would work hard to discover a treatment or cure for it . But now pre-existing drug products are in need of more illnesses to treat . Imagine that . A drug exists but doesn ' t have a big enough ' market .' One effective way around this business problem is to widen the definition of what is ' ill ' so that a bigger market is created and more drugs can be sold ( 2 ) . ' Manic depressive illness ' was and is a rare and serious condition affecting ten people in a million . Let me say that again . Ten people in a million . This form of the illness is so powerful that sufferers often need to be hospitalized . The re-branding of manic depression as bipolar disorder was a marketing strategy - not a scientific discovery . Ten people in a million is a paltry market if you have drugs to sell . But if you can widen the net , so as to gain more ' customers ' you can have yourself a blockbusting , best-selling drug . Chances are you know someone who has been diagnosed as BPD or maybe you ' ve been told you have this condition yourself . So just how much of an increase in ' diagnoses ' has there been ?
From 10 in a million to 1 in 20
From ten in a million before the mid 1990s , bipolar disorder supposedly now affects fifty thousand people in a million or one in twenty . Purveyors of drug products have convinced doctors ( those at the front line of prescription ) that the normal spectrum of ' mood disorders ' ( another term made up by marketeers ) are really indicative of an ' underlying ' case of bipolar disorder , so