Quote:
Originally Posted by TakingMyMeds
I completely understand what you are saying but when I started this thread I was feeling down and wondering if my diagnosis was a one way street to poverty. I know that money doesn't matter when your dead but having some extra disposable income and family and good friends definitely makes life a lot better. Of course success is probably better measured by your contribution to society but I'm more focused on getting myself together right now. I do want to volunteer places but I want to be able to travel the world too (all over not just Third world countries) so that is what I was thinking when I defined success that way.
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I understand completely where you are coming from. And as you've read already, there's lots of people right here at PC who have MI but are making a living. And there's also people with MI who are rich and famous.
For one thing, I know there's a lot of people with schizophrenia who are college professors, not to mention a lot of people on the autism scale who are professors and researchers, and who work in the sciences and tech industries.
In fact, the woman who invented Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) which people talk about all over this forum is also mentally ill, though I've heard conflicting reports on her exact diagnosis--bi-polar or schizophrenia.
And depression is practically an epidemic, though lots of people with it can make good livings.
Famous people with MI: Bill Gates is probably autistic, and Temple Grandin is a famous researcher with autism. Carrie Fisher is bipolar--she played Leia in
Star Wars and is now a very successful writer. Tons of famous writers, artists, and musicians have had MI and/or addictions, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Keith Richards, Barbara Streisand.
Here's a link to a blog that lists 300 famous/successful people with MI
I hope you are feeling better now and can see MI isn't a trap into poverty. But of course, the current state of the economy doesn't help matters. :-(
--Ceara1010