Patty Duke Quotes

I am manic and that leads me to behave badly at times.

I have spent my life going from mania to mania. Somehow it has all paid off.

Manic depressive people often have incredible energy and a slightly skewed, but nonetheless valid, way of looking at things.

People with bipolar disorder have difficulty with boundaries.

People who are bipolar, they kind of latch onto things that are fanatical sometimes.

Part of the frustration of being bipolar is people don't understand what it feels like.

I had developed manic depression [bipolar disorder] ... and the main symptoms the constant voice in the head telling you to kill yourself.

Mania is as bad as it gets. If not treated, it will become worse, more frequent, and harder to treat.

I still have highs and lows, just like any other person. What's missing is the lack of control over the super highs, which became destructive, and the super lows, which are immediately destructive.

When I taught writing classes to psychiatric patients, I met people whose stories of manic highs and immobilizing lows appeared to be textbook descriptions of classic bipolar disorder. I met other patients who had been diagnosed with myriad disorders. No doctor seemed to agree about what they actually suffered from.

There are a lot of studies that suggest a higher rate of creativity in bipolars than the general population.

I have a type of bipolar that swings up and down all day long. There are significant mood swings within a day, within a week, within a month. I go through at least four major episodes a year. That's really the definition of bipolar rapid cycle. But I have ultra-rapid, so I have tiny little episodes all day long.

I have people in my family with bipolar disorder, and for years I've watched them struggle with the disorder's extreme moods and often devastating consequences.

The little depression I experienced during my manic-depression was not like depression as anyone else had ever described it. It was very violent and angry, and I was full of rage. I wasn't lying in bed.

Manic depression is a type of depression, technically, and it's the opposite of uni-polar. Manic depression is also called bi-polar disorder. Some people don't like to call it that because they think it makes it sound too nice, when the reality is if you have manic-depression you have manic-depression.

Even when I'm in a really great, steady and stable place... I'm clinically bipolar, so that always exists - a darkness always exists.

In total, I was diagnosed with depression by eight psychotherapists and psychiatrists over a period of thirteen years. Diagnosed wrong. Absolutely wrong. My accurate diagnosis was manic depression, or what we call bipolar disorder today.

When I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder the year I turned 50, it was certainly a shock. But as a journalist, knowing a little bit about a lot of things, I didn't suffer the misconception that depression was all in my head or a mark of poor character. I knew it was a disease, and, like all diseases, was treatable.

The world of manic depression is a world of bad judgment calls.

Every now and then I hear voices in my head, but not very clear. I can't understand what they are saying. It's a mental illness. I have been diagnosed as a manic depressive.

Do I perform sometimes in a manic style? Yes. Am I manic all the time? No. Do I get sad? Oh yeah. Does it hit me hard? Oh yeah.

It's not a giant thrill to hear someone give you the label 'manic-depressive,' but to me I was so relieved. What I was suffering from had a name and could be treated.

At the age of 19, I removed myself from society for almost four months, setting off years of manic episodes, including outrageous overspending. I bought several Mercedes because I thought I could. I had no money, but I rented a jet.

I had been a hurricane all my life. And that was, of course, because I was bipolar and did not know it. And I was - you know, the mania took control. When you're on stage and when you're performing, you're heightened, and it's an extreme.

I have mood swings, but I'm sure people in England have that, too. Me and my friends, we're just a bunch of happy idiots.