The individuals afflicted with Bipolar Disorder have mood swings, happy one day , down on the others, some days those moods appear one after the other. There are meds to control their behaviors. And true, the people who have Bipolar Disorder don't usually engage in criminal behavior, but they do like to spend money, becoming irresponsible with their finances.
I know, right? It might be a much shorter list nominating those NOT afflicted (or at least, not allegedly so) by mental instability. It also comes down to precarious perceptions of what is normal and what isn’t. It’s fantastic that mental illness has been de-stigmatised to a large extent - but without being too cynical, perhaps some of the more high profile personalities have overly embraced a particular “condition” in boutique fashion - and possibly as a poor excuse for certain behaviours. Accessorising with a mental illness that maintains their elite stature above the plebs. Ha! Didn’t Mike Douglas claim to be mentally enslaved to sexual addiction? Old school read on that: Being an unfaithful cheat. Not so fancy and not so exonerating. It’s funny how we like to update labels and descriptions- Bipolar sounds very medically apt - however, the good old Manic Depression description left no doubt as to the chief symptoms. Also, how many kids are now deemed to be on the spectrum for Autism these days? Many inappropriately so, being incorrectly fed numbing sedatives. Before there was ADD and ADHD, my primary school teacher literally recommended that I be given sedatives - LOL, how cool is that? The other more practiced and effective prescription was a swift kick up the a** - and I can tell you, I nearly over dosed on the latter “medicine”. Ha! Don’t get me wrong - there are of course legit cases for these conditions - and they should be treated thusly and appropriately. Perhaps we all possess a measure of so called Autism in varying degrees anyway - so not so abnormal. In fact, and I don’t necessarily subscribe to it - some have argued that increases in Autistic features could represent an evolutionary step - in so far as being more logically efficient and not so much coloured or intellectually distorted by emotions. But emotions are the most distinct characteristic that make us human, right? Anyway, Ali upheld plenty of Manic moments - I wonder, away from the public eye, if that was ever balanced out by some measure of depression and melancholic reflection? Maybe not, maybe Ali was simply as mad as a cut snake most of the time. LOL.
Believe what you want, but someone not announcing what meds they are on to the world is no indicator of whether they have been diagnosed with any sort of mental illness or condition. That’s between them and their doctor.
Bipolar disorder requires lifelong treatment with medications, even during periods when you feel better. People who skip maintenance treatment are at high risk of a relapse of symptoms or having minor mood changes turn into full-blown mania or depression. Day treatment programs.Feb 16, 2021 (Mayo Clinic)