Expelled, arrested, suicidal:  From an early age Stephen Fry demonstrated bipolar behaviour.  ​

​

In an interview for BigThink Stephen said: ​​​​​​​​​​I was first diagnosed actually not to my knowledge as being possibly bipolar when I was about fifteen. I didn’t know this until much later when I made a documentary about my life as a manic depressive or someone with bipolar disorder, whatever you choose to call it, an uppy-downy, mood-swingy kind of guy. In fact, technically I believe the correct diagnosis for my condition is psychothymic." 

​

Eloquently, Stephen likens mood disorder to the weather: To me mood is the equivalent of weather. Weather is real. That’s the important thing to remember about weather. It is absolutely real. When it rains it rains. It is wet. You get wet. There is no question about it. It’s also true about weather that you can’t control it. You can’t say if I wish hard enough it won’t rain and it’s equally true that if the weather is bad one day it will get better and what I had to learn was to treat my moods like the weather. On the one hand denying that they were there and saying I can’t… I’m not really depressed. Why should I be depressed? I’ve got enough money. I’ve got a job. People like me. There is no to be depressed. That’s at stupid as saying there is no reason to have asthma or there is no reason to have the measles."

​

Admirable for his openness about his personal struggles with mental health Stephen is not afraid to remind poeple of the seriousness of the condition: "There's no doubt that I do have extremes of mood that are greater than just about anybody else I know."  Contemplating whilst on a medical break in America Stephen said his "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. Four million others in the UK have it and many of them end up killing themselves."

​​​​​​​​​​​​'Happiness is no respector of persons' - Stephen Fry​​​​​​​​​​