Smash hit

Richard was suffering a classic “manic episode” - one of the two symptoms of bipolar condition, the other being a “depressed episode”, which causes the sufferer to feel low and lethargic. Professor McGuffin says: “As well as an excess of energy, manias cause people to lose their inhibitions. It is good to be confident in yourself, but too much and you might end up doing something extreme like taking your clothes off in public.”

Although he was not taking his clothes off, Richard’s confidence was certainly very high. However, he thought his behaviour was normal and everything was going well, until his friends confronted him.

“A couple of them said: ‘Would you mind seeing a doctor. It’s difficult to say but we are concerned about your health.’ I was surprised; I didn’t think anything was wrong, but I didn’t know about bipolar disorder. If you don’t know why would you think there was a problem?”

Richard was lucky to have such attentive friends. “Mild highs often go undiagnosed because the patient does not do anything to attract attention,” explains Professor McGuffin. “They just stay up late and have excess energy, but it could still be dangerous if it becomes a fully blown mania.”

Richard’s GP immediately sent him for tests at the psychiatric hospital, where they discovered large amounts of adrenaline and the feel-good hormone serotonin pumping around his body. These drugs are over-produced by the body during a manic episode, and were making Richard feel constantly buzzing.

To bring his mood down, Richard was admitted to the psychiatric ward and given large doses of anti-psychotic suppressants. Having deprived his body of rest for so long, he started sleeping for 20 to 22 hours every day.

“I was massively confused and scared because I didn’t know what had happened and if it was ever going to get back to normal – was I ever going to be able to go back to university? Is this life now? It was a horrible, really sad time.”

Richard was forced to take two years off university as he fell into a depressive trough after the mania. He could not get out of bed, see his friends or concentrate on a book for more than 30 seconds. He was suffering the other end of the bipolar scale, a depressed episode. Sufferers feel anxious, lose interest in pleasurable activities, feel devoid of energy and in the worst cases, suicidal.

It took months for Richard to recover, but his determined character overcame it. “I went for a walk with my family one day,” he remembers. “It was February and the ground was icy. My brother nearly fell over and I laughed. My dad said: ‘That’s the first time you’ve smiled since October’.”

Over the next 18 months, Richard controlled his mood with a daily dose of lithium. “You don’t feel the good things as strongly or the bad things on lithium,” he says. “Good things trigger manias in me, so I have to step back from excitement. You have to sacrifice them to remain healthy.”

Nevertheless, the drive that made him the only pupil at his comprehensive school to get into Cambridge and a manager by the age of 20 began to return and he went back to university. “I got a Masters from Cambridge and worked bloody hard for it,” he says.

Richard’s condition has made life tough for him in the past, but as Professor McGuffin says, “if you are going to do well [with bipolar disorder], you have to learn to live with it”. Richard now has a support network of counsellors and friends whom he talks to about the condition and who can help identify another potential episode.

Richard has proved that bipolar disorder won’t stop him getting to the top of whatever he puts his mind to, which is now synthetic biology. “I have a lot of energy at times and I do have a temper on me,” he says, “but it makes me the person I am, and if they’re coupled to bipolar disorder so what?”

Indeed, Professor McGuffin suggests that the enhanced moods of bipolar sufferers may actually help them to become successful. Author Virginia Woolf, actor Stephen Fry and musician Axl Rose, are just a few examples of famous sufferers who have excelled in their fields.

“I suspect bipolar increases creativity and energy, and sufferers can channel more energy into their career,” he says. “There are probably plenty of entrepreneurs who have a little bit of bipolar disorder driving them, but it never manifests itself.”

Richard agrees with this theory. “Your experiences ultimately shape you, and bipolar episodes have made me stronger,” he says. “You’ve got this range of emotions to express and you’ve got drive and ambition.

“Given the choice I’d go through it again, because how happy and prepared I am now is a massive improvement. I’m a much better person.”

* Not his real name

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