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Explainer | What is bipolar disorder? Types, symptoms and causes of condition affecting Kanye West and Selena Gomez, and what it really feels like
- Sadie Kaye, who founded the support group Bipolar Hong Kong, explains how bipolar disorder affects her, and a psychologist breaks down the different types
- ‘Our judgment is impaired and left untreated, we might hallucinate and experience delusions, often of grandeur,’ says Kaye, who has had the disorder for decades
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On the face of it, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, American novelist Ernest Hemingway and rapper Kanye West – now called Ye – do not appear to have much in common. Yet they probably share a mental health diagnosis: bipolar disorder.
You can add singer Mariah Carey, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and pop princess Selena Gomez to that list.
Sadie Kaye, who founded the support group Bipolar Hong Kong, was diagnosed with the disorder in 2011. She defines it as “a cyclical mood disorder of acute ups and downs”.
Symptoms affect mood, sleep, energy, thinking, behaviour and appetite, Kaye says, representing a sudden shift from the person’s usual self.
Kaye’s description of her own experience of the condition is compelling.

“Our bipolar mood swings can be profoundly destructive and very disruptive to our own lives, as well as to the lives of our loved ones,” she says. But, she continues, they can also be enjoyable “to a point” – and, as has been noted by many who live with the disorder, including all the famous people above – they can fuel creativity.
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