synergy

because of or despite of?

Last night, after returning home from a neighborhood meet & greet and an attempt to organize yet ANOTHER neighborhood group (Our neighborhood groups have sub-neighborhood groups, it's absurd.) , K and I had a minute to sit down. I told her about Linda Hamilton coming forward with bipolar disorder.

Last night, she couldn't sleep, so she went online and begin searching for other famous people, who suffered from bipolar disorder. Some of the people on the lists were very surprising to me, Sting, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Isaac Newton, Abraham Lincoln, Madonna. I have to wonder how they know some of the historical figures suffered from bipolar disorder. No explanation is provided, but here's the link. (Note: I quickly reviewed the rest of the site, there are some good resources, but the rest of the content seems more marketing for psychoanalysis.) My question is as to this list of people, are they successful because they have bipolar disorder or despite having bipolar disorder?

Bipolar disorder is listed as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This allows for protections against losing your job, special accommodations to allow for the disease, and legal protection against discrimination. This does mean that you have to tell your supervisor that you have a chronic illness.

K's not had to fight legally, but she has notified her supervisor, who's wonderful, that she has bipolar disorder. When K was very ill, her supervisor did everything in her power to protect K and make sure there was no pressure from the office. K asked her not to tell anyone else about the bipolar diagnoses. That said, K's supervisor has received pressure from above to say why K has been out of work so much over the past 20 months, and the ADA has been invoked as a protection. If too much pressure is exerted, K always has the option to file a complaint against the ones putting on pressure, citing the ADA.

That story was a long-winded way of getting around to saying K found another list of successful people, who all have disabilities. This one is very current and includes the Linda Hamilton announcement and a number of other bpers.

posted by synergy @ 7:28 AM