Manic Depression

“Music, sweet music
I wish I could caress, caress, caress–
Manic depression is a frustrating mess.”

Jimi Hendrix–“Manic Depression” from “Are You Experienced?” (1967)

I am a diagnosed Manic Depressive with the papers to prove it.

Other Depressives include new inductee Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ann-Margaret, Alexander the Great, Hans Christian Anderson, Drew Barrymore, Beethoven (the Composer), Irving Berlin, Napoleon, Marlon Brando, Tim Burton, Truman Capote, Drew Carey, Jim Carrey, Ray Charles, Chopin (the Composer), Winston Churchill, Eric Clapton, Dick Clark, Kurt Cobain, Francis Ford Coppola, Sheryl Crow, Rodney Dangerfield and Charles Darwin,

Then we have Queen Elizabeth I, William Faulkner, Carrie Fisher, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Larry Flynt, Harrison Ford, Steven Foster, Sigmund Freud, Peter Gabriel, Alexander Hamilton, Handel (the Composer), Steven Hawking, Ernest Hemmingway, Jimi Hendrix, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Howard Hughes, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, Joan of Arc, Elton John, Ashley Judd, Robert E. Lee, John Lennon, Abraham Lincoln, Courtney Love, Martin Luther, Herman Melville, Michelangelo, Joni Mitchell, Marilyn Monroe, Alanis Morissette, J.P.Morgan and Benito Mussolini.

Let alone Sir Isaac Newton, Florence Nightingale, Deborah Norville, Sinead O’Connor, Eugene O’Neill, Laurence Olivier, Ozzie Osbourne, Dolly Parton, George Patton, Edgar Allen Poe, Cole Porter, Charlie Pride, Lou Reed, Theodore Roosevelt, Axl Rose, Yves Saint Laurent, Charles Schulz, Paul Simon, Phil Spector, George Stephanopolis, Robert Louis Stevenson and Sting.

Without overlooking Tchaikovsky (the Composer), Alfred Lord Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, Spencer Tracy, Ted Turner, Mark Twain, Mike Tyson, Kurt Vonnegut, Mike Wallace, Robin Williams, Brian Wilson, Boris Yeltsin and St. Francis of Assisi

Sounds like a party to me.

One hell of a party.

The hot new name for Manic Depression is Bipolar Disorder.

It’s a chemical imbalance.

All in your head.

From DNA code.

There’s a huge variation in types with various degrees of challenge. I’m told I have Rapid Cycling Bipolar Disorder. Type Two. Discovering this was quite a relief. I thought I was just a drunk.

I’ve tried Zoloft, Effexor, Paxil, Wellbutrin, Lamictal, Topamax, Lithium, Lexapro and Celexa. Right now, plain old Prozac seems to work best

Only because marijuana remains outlaw.

A mystery.

Especially since the American Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) was drafted on marijuana paper.

No lie!

There’s one thing certain about Rapid Cycling Bipolar Disorder.

You ride the monkey or the monkey rides you.

“His Excellency Lord Cavanaugh”

Family records indicate this was quite possibly the original “Peter Cavanaugh” (my Great-Grandfather) , who was known to head 20 miles south from Fulton to the fair city of Syracuse, where he would spend much time and treasure indulging in various pleasurable pursuits while consuming copious quantities of “The Holy Water.”

And telling tales. It is said he was given to “great flights of fancy.”

I am passionately persuaded this was my most recent incarnation.

From The New York Times–September 12, 1884