In this TED Talk, comedian Joshua Walters, offers a different perspective on being bipolar and having manic episodes. He offers the idea that one can choose to deny the illness and go through life over medicated, or one can use the illness and the manic episodes as a tool. He spends most of the clip talking about what’s called a “hypo manic edge” that very successful entrepreneurs and business leaders often have and what investors look for. Walters references a book written by selected my author, Kay Redfield Jamison, which speaks to this topic, and he identifies many examples of individuals who have used their madness to their benefit. With this, Walter offers that there is a spectrum of crazy, between being over medicated and being completely manic and thinking you’re Jesus Christ, but in-between there is opportunity for “mental skillness”.
http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_walters_on_being_just_crazy_enough/
