STEPHEN FRY

I don't think that many people are going to reply to this post (although I could be wrong) and for this reasons I start the discussion by going solo with the discussion. It is 5AM here in Sydney/Woy Woy Australia. Woy Woy is a suburb of Gosford which is also where Spike Milligan lived. The Woy Woy library here displays some of his and his brother's paintings. Spike did not like Woy Woy very much but today it has changed a lot. The population has increased and it is also a wonderful spot on the sea with beautiful beeches and lovely seafood. I love the placce here. It is much like a holiday place.

This morning I got up thinking about the fact that both Stephen Fry and I suffer with bipolar 2 and have synesthesia. Are there similarities between Stephen Fry and me?

I think that there are similarities. I will begin by guessing a few things. I can be very intuitive.

I am a Sagittarius with the moon in Gemini while Stephen Fry is of the star sign Taurus with the moon in Leo according to my calculation which could be wrong. These signs mean two very different personalities.

There are many similarities. In fact, one of the most important similarities is that both Stephen and I are Humanitarian Gifted people, a way of being that is often misinterpreted as mental illness. If it was up to me I would say that Stephen and I do not suffer with bipolar 2 but are humanitarian gifted people. I know, many people may laugh while reading this but to get a better idea please read what I wrote at this link

http://alfredo123.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/anthony.....ed-people/

It is absolutely true that humanitarian gifted people care deeply about their world and the people and are highly emotional. The emotions often lead to mood disorders and these are important because they are a sign of great emotional, or heart, intelligence. In fact the academic intelligence that is often measured using IQ tests is only a very tiny part of the human intelligence.

Stephen likes computers and gadgets and so do I. The difference is that Stephen can afford to buy new equipment while I often get faulty equipment that I fix. Both my wife and I are pensioners and we live on a minimum wage but because I can fix thing, anything from computers to cars to other electronic equipment, I am able to live a middle class life. I have many computers which I bought faulty and which I've fixed. I am now writing on the latest iMac second generation i7 computer. I could never afford such computer if I was to buy it new. But I got it almost free as faulty and fixed it. I do love apple computers and I have many models from the early iMac to the powermac silver doors.

Another similarity may be that both Stephen and I love books. I have a personal small library at home with all of my favorite books. I love books, I like to hold them, read them and collect them. They are a treasure to me.

I study at University now and currently enrolled in a bachelor of clinical psychology program. I have an honours degree in social anthropology which I received 12 years ago and now I am back at University to learn some new tricks. I try to help many people with depression and bipolar, as a volunteer, on many self help websites like this one and because of this I need to know as much as I can about psychology which is the reason why I am studying now.

I am Italian and English is my second language. I am not as articulate as Stephen in terms of English expression and writings but to compensate for this I speak a few languages.

Stephen is a famous personality while I am unknown by the media and work in the background as a marginal person which is something that I really like because from this position I am quite powerful in my attempt to change social structure and inform people about mental illness. My main message is that while some rare cases can be considered mental illness I do not believe in the term "illness" as it is used to describe bipolar 2 or depression.

Both Stephen and I have a heart of gold and see how beautiful, and paradoxical, life really is although sometimes we are taken by depressive moods. I think that we both have personal demons.

Looking back at what I have written I can see that even though Stephen and I are very different people who live very different lives we do share, I think, the fact that we are humanitarian gifted people. I don't know if he would agree with this, probably not. The term gifted is snobbish and elitist even though humanitarian gifted people are really here to serve humanity. We are the butlers of the world. We serve a very different uncommon knowledge or wisdom.

No matter what the difference in terms of money and status both Stephen and I live very fulfilling lives, very busy and interesting lives, and both are happy with whom we are even though we have personal demons.

There is always a price to pay for being multitalented and for being a humanitarian gifted person.

If I was to make a documentary on the life of people with bipolar disorder 2, I would make sure to distinguish those who are humanitarian gifted people from those who suffer with bipolar alone. I would immediately distinguish Stephen or me from the list. It is not easy to distinguish the two disorders because the symptoms, in many ways, are very similar. However, one is not at all a mental illness but a mental gift.

I will write more later but I would really appreciate some feedback. I can take criticism well and, over the years, I have had to learn how to keep things running smooth on websites like this because here people tend to leave their inhibitions behind and enter into heated discussions to discuss things that they would not normally discuss in real life situation. Cyberspace is an interesting space to study.