Being manic depressive does not exclude other obsessions. Instead, other delusions and obsessions can help to trigger manic depressive behaviour. Mental illnesses are hardly ever well defined. Instead, if you rack up enough points on a list of symptoms you get to wear the label. Thus not all manic depressives are equal.

If he was paranoid then he was able to imagine all sorts of threats that he had little proof of. This type of mind would work well to tackle malcious software attacks.

The problem with his medication was probably that it messed with his abilities. SSRI's are given so you don't care, not so you feel happy. Most people care too much about life to kill themselves, people on SSRI's don't care so killing themselves is no big deal. I don't know how long it takes to come off SSRI's.

It's a real shame.

They have to experiment till they get the right combo of meds. The meds them self can leave you feeling like zombie. Often the people say the hell with this. I can be screwed up or a shell of person.

This is a person's demise we are discussing, an insightful and possibly very smart man who was obviously loved by his wife and family. He suffered from a debilitating illness that finally caught up to him, a very sad story indeed.

AFAIK, meds for maniac depression (which I believe is also called bipolar disorder) are not the same as drugs for plain depression. SSRIs are common for depression treatment, but lithium is more commonly used for bipolar - something about the SSRIs making bipolars always manic if I remember. If someone with a real medical degree can comment or correct me that might be useful...

"a very sad story indeed"

Hear hear. Very sad indeed, and a real shame that no-one appeared to help the poor chap with his depression.

Never going to happen im afraid. To many people have set ideas about mental illness. It is all to acceptable to use words like "Crazy" and "loony", even by people who would never dream of using the word "cripple". The problem is people are (Understandably) afraid to stand up and say something, often because of the stigma attached, or because they are unable to.

My Wife is very ill with mental health problems (I would rather not say any more) and we fight every day to get the support we need from the Doctors, never mind anything else.

As for the talk about SSRIs, they can be very good, but only if you get the right ones. It is normaly considerd to be an advers reaction if you get the dissacosiation "zombie" feeling, but so many Doctors don't care. My wife has even been told by one Doctor "I am not changing your medication because noone else is having that problem.". We went else where.

What a tool, all that money and he couldn't even get his head shrunk, pathetic.

I suffered from manic depression for 25 years to the point of being on disability for the last couple. Only a little while ago I discovered that my symptoms were made *MUCH* worse by caffeine. Being caffeine-free has been a huge win for me.

And ya, the wrong psych drug can put you into hospital with mania. I had a 6 month run with Imipramine. That lovely drug got me 2 weeks on a psych ward.

Depression in general is treated as a stigma and truly understood by non-sufferers. Yet there are many, many sufferers. Bipolar disorder is a massively damaging problem to sufferers. Huge highs of creativity followed by periods of truly horrifying despair.

Stephen Fry is a sufferer of bipolar disorder, yet nobody could deny his aptitude and fearsome intelligence. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Fry) Yet, in his own words, when he suffers the negative side of this problem, he thinks of himself as a “cunt”. (Moderators, please allow this use of a word that normally gets posts banned, Fry himself has said this on TV and it illustrates just how low somebody’s opinion of themselves reaches when in the negative cycle of this disorder).

Remember this dear reader, not all mental problems result in a danger to others, some result in a danger to the sufferers and nobody else.

I think that Steven Thomas suffered this negative cycle, yet he was clearly had a creative mind. A shame for him that although he had more money than most of us, it meant nothing in the end.

My thoughts go out to his family.

Sean (with an accent), the only pathetic thing on this thread is you. Your post serves as a testament to your ignorance and intolerance.

Pad.

I call BS on this one. What sort of tool would sit there, let a loved one refuse to take medications, knowing he's having issues with functioning and rationality, and then leave him to his own devices while heading conveniently a thousand miles away? As his wife she could force the issue for his own safety. but she didn't and now he's dead. Which either means she was too stupid to realize that it would be better for him to hate her for intervening but have a chance to get better, or pulled a "Courtney Love" and let him get worse since he wasn't on the cutting edge anymore and raking in big VC?

I have friends, one of whom is having doctor and medication change issues. Her husband is her advocate, even when she's unable or even unwilling to have him act in her behalf. Because when things get straightened out later, she's always glad he did, despite what she said while impaired or otherwise out of it.