SoberHeroes: Macklemore
Whether it’s showing his support for same-sex marriage or talking candidly about his addiction, Macklemore is one of the most genuine rappers making hip-hop today. Macklemore’s 2012 Grammy-winning album with Ryan Lewis, The Heist, is chock full of references to his drinking days and the demons he fought while trying to get sober.
The Bipolar Punk Rock Opera You’ve Been Waiting For
New Jersey punks Titus Andronicus just dropped an atomic bomb of a double album, The Most Lamentable Tragedy, a 29-song, 93-minute blood-and-guts opus about frontman Patrick Stickles’ struggles with bipolar disorder.
Mood Music: Bright Eyes – Fevers and Mirrors
Conor Oberst, a.k.a. Bright Eyes, is perhaps the greatest songwriter of my generation. Evoking bipolar and depression, this album is as moody as it gets.
SoberHeroes: Eminem
With all the fame and fortune comes great instability and hardship as with many who live in the world of celebrity. Until he got sober in 2008, Eminem had a problem with prescription drugs – particularly Vicodin, Valium, and Ambien. According to an interview with Rolling Stone, the pill-popping was intense. “In a day I could consume anywhere from 40 to 60 Valium. And Vicodin… maybe 20, 30? I don’t know. I was taking a lot of shit.”
Mood Music: Nirvana — In Utero
Fits of rage. Depression. Mania. Addiction. Angst. These are the essential ingredients of In Utero, an album that foreshadows bipolar genius Kurt Cobain’s suicide.
The Loveable Mark Ruffalo in ‘Infinitely Polar Bear’
Quirky. Eccentric. Adorable. In Infinitely Polar Bear, the bipolar character Cam Stuart is a super-likable guy. Played by Mark Ruffalo, Cam is a fun-loving father in a family of four just trying to get by. Bipolar characters are few and far between in high-profile pop culture. There’s Pat, the bipolar football fanatic played by Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook, and Carrie Mathison, the bipolar CIA agent played by Claire Danes in the hit Showtime TV show Homeland. And that’s about it. Until now.
Bipolar Celebrities: Linda Hamilton
As the machine-gun-wielding Sarah Connor in the Terminator movies, Linda Hamilton is the ultimate badass action hero. She’s battled cyborgs in the dystopian world of the Terminator series — the latest installment of which, Terminator Genisys, recently came out. But off-screen, she’s battled bipolar disorder.
The Top 10 Songs About Addiction
There are songs that paint a vivid picture of drug and alcohol abuse and there are songs that glorify it. For this list, I focused on the former. These are songs that describe addiction to a T. Most of these artists know what it’s like to be stuck in the spider hole of addiction. They’ve lived to tell these cautionary tales.
Gay Marriage Victory Hits Home for The Mentally Ill
The plight of the mentally ill is not unlike that of the gay population. Like any minority group, sometimes we feel like we are second-class citizens. Like any minority group, sometimes the mentally ill feel like they are second-class citizens. Gays and lesbians for the most part used to feel misunderstood. Ostracized. Stigmatized. In some parts of the country and in certain circles, they still do. But for those of us with bipolar and other mental illnesses, we are also stigmatized to the extreme.
Movie Review: Bipolar Beach Boy Brian Wilson Biopic “Love & Mercy” Falls Short
Brian Wilson is the mastermind behind the Beach Boys and he is a bipolar genius. Love & Mercy — a new biopic — explores his life and legacy. And while I have to say it’s an enjoyable movie, the film looks at his life through rose-colored glasses. Wilson’s true diagnosis of bipolar disorder isn’t even touched upon in the film.