What the research actually says.

Claims you’ve heard, checked against the paper

• All
• ✕ Contradicted
• ? Not shown
• ◑ Partly holds
• ↓ Overstated

1. “Bipolar disorder costs the US $202 billion a year.”The $202 Billion Bill ↓ Overstated About $25 billion of it was measured. The rest is a baseline and figures modelled from other studies.
2. “Caregiving is the biggest cost of bipolar disorder.”What bipolar costs, and who pays it ? Not shown The caregiving figure is the paper’s largest line, but it is modelled from a survey of caregivers, not measured.
3. “Bipolar disorder makes you more creative.”The creativity link, read without the romance ◑ Partly holds The drive behind a creative career looks like a trait. The extra fluency shows up during mania, with more errors, and not in remission.
4. “People with bipolar disorder make better entrepreneurs.”Ambition is the bridge between bipolar and the business idea ? Not shown Ambition and creativity travel together across the bipolar spectrum. Nobody here measured whether ventures succeed.
5. “You can manage bipolar disorder with how you live.”What the people who stayed well actually did ◑ Partly holds People who stayed well used the same six kinds of strategy. The study describes wellness; it does not show what causes it.
6. “People with bipolar disorder don’t want to work.”Almost everyone out of work wanted to be in it ✕ Contradicted Fifteen of the sixteen unemployed people in the study wanted a job.
7. “Once your mood is stable, you’re back to normal.”Fifteen years later, speed mattered more than mood ✕ Contradicted Fifteen years on, processing speed predicted how people’s lives were going better than their mood symptoms did.
8. “Psychedelics are fine if you’re on a mood stabiliser.”Lithium and psychedelics: the seizure signal ✕ Contradicted With lithium, 47% of the reports described a seizure. With lamotrigine, none did.
9. “Racing thoughts are just being easily distracted.”Racing thoughts, counted ✕ Contradicted Mania changed how words were linked, not how many mistakes people made.