Illustration by Ana Mouriño
He’s got more than 11 million Twitter followers, is the author of 10 books, and has taken on roles in The Hobbit films. He’s also played characters in V for Vendetta, the Sherlock Holmes movies (starring Robert Downey, Jr.), and other films such as A Fish Called Wanda and Gosford Park. I was even surprised to find out that he’s narrated several of my favorite video games, including Fable II and Fable III, the Little Big Planet series, and the first four Harry Potter games. Yes, British comedian Stephen Fry is the ultimate multimedia man.
The outspoken, gay Fry was diagnosed at age 37 with Bipolar I disorder.
“I am the victim of my own moods, more than most people are perhaps, in as much as I have a condition which requires me to take medication so that I don’t get either too hyper or too depressed to the point of suicide,” Fry told BBC News in 2013.
Around that time, he revealed that his medication regimen seemed to be working.
“I’d never heard the word before, but for the first time I had a diagnosis that explains the massive highs and miserable lows I’ve lived with all my life,” Fry told the UK nonprofit Time for Change.
“I want to speak out, to fight the public stigma, and to give a clearer picture of mental illness that most people know little about,” he continued. “Once the understanding is there, we can all stand up and not be ashamed of ourselves, then it makes the rest of the population realize that we are just like them but with something extra.”
“Just like them but with something extra” — I couldn’t have put it better myself. Stephen Fry has done more to help break the stigma of bipolar disorder than most celebrities.
He made the International Emmy-winning television documentary Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, which examined the impact of living with bipolar disorder for celebrities and everyday people.
“The psychiatrist in the hospital recommended I take a long break,” he says in the documentary, referring to a period after a suicide attempt in 1994. “I came here to America, and for months I saw a therapist and walked up and down this beach. My mind was full of questions. Am I now mad? How have I got this illness, could it have been prevented, can I be cured of it? Since then, I have discovered just how serious it is to have bipolarity, or manic depression, as it’s also called.”
He admirably talks candidly and openly about his experience living with bipolar disorder in interviews and on film.
Like many creatives, his creativity can be fueled by mania.
“If unmedicated, there are times when I am so exuberant, so hyper, that I can go three or four nights without sleep,” he told The Independent in 2013. “I’m writing and I’m doing stuff and I’m so grandiose and I’m so full of self-belief it’s almost impossible to deal with me. I can’t stop speaking. I go on shopping sprees.”
Stephen Fry is the president of Mind, a nonprofit in the UK dedicated to raising awareness and providing support and advice for anyone suffering from a mental health condition.
The earnestness of Fry’s commitment with Mind is in sharp contrast to his usually comedic temperament. It just goes to show you the seriousness of this disease and how it compels you to do good because of it. That’s the very same reason I write this blog — to educate, to entertain, to enlighten, and to raise awareness.
