I'm looking for some inspiration and reassurance: Can you talk about some famous people who have managed to thrive with bipolar disorder?

There are many famous people — throughout history and in present-day society — who have led very successful lives once their bipolar disorder was effectively treated. The actress Carrie Fisher, the Johns Hopkins University professor Kay Redfield Jamison, the writer and producer Sidney Sheldon, and the TV journalist Jane Pauley have all written absorbing autobiographical books about their experiences, which I highly recommend reading.

Among the more well-known historical figures believed to have had bipolar disorder are distinguished political figures (Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt) and writers and composers (Balzac, Beethoven, Handel, Schumann, Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway). In Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, Kay Jamison examines the links between bipolar disorder and creative temperament and reviews case histories of famous composers and writers believed to have had bipolar illness.