Re: CHAT: OT CHAT: Asperger's syndrome

John Cowan wrote:

> Winston Churchill was a classic manic-depressive who
> was able to mobilize his manic periods for nothing less
> than saving civilization.  Most manics just spin their
> wheels by spending lots of money, driving like lunatics,
> and having massive amounts of meaningless sex....
> which sounds fine until the bills come in.
That's very interesting (about Churchill); I didn't know
that. The current Australian PM (John Winston Howard)
sees Churchill as a political role-model, incidentally.
But never mind that. Mental illness is something I think
about a lot, for complex reasons, but one of those
reasons is that one or two people with manic depression a
and so on have made a brief but lasting influence on the
way I see myself and the world. For example, it was a
manic depressive on the Net (Anitra, who runs a bipolar
webring IIRC) who, upon seeing that my internet persona
is the Eight Foot Tall Flesh Eating Dragon, introduced me
to her image of Dragons as guarding wisdom and creativity
from the destructive aspects of humanity. I like this way
of looking at things, so it's stayed with me.

Her description of manic depression, and some of the
links therefrom, form pretty much the sum of what I know
on the subject:
<http://members.xoom.com/_XMCM/Anitra/bipolar.html>

Adrian.