Maria Bamford

• Bamford has said she was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder around 2011, when she was 40, during a period that included severe depression and psychiatric hospitalization. She has described being surprised by the diagnosis and initially resisting the suggestion that she take a mood stabilizer, spend time in hospital and step away from work. [1]
• She later began discussing the diagnosis openly in her stand-up, interviews and television work. Her Netflix series Lady Dynamite drew directly on the period when she stepped away from her career for treatment. [4]

• Bamford has described severe depressive episodes, including periods when she felt unsafe being alone. In 2011, she was hospitalized three times for mental-health treatment and subsequently returned to Minnesota to live with her parents while recovering. [10][1]
• She has also described hypomanic periods. Looking back on the period before her diagnosis, Bamford recalled that her psychiatrist noticed she was talking unusually fast and recommended a mood stabilizer. [1]
• Bamford has also discussed longstanding anxiety and intrusive or obsessive thoughts, including unwanted thoughts about violence. [1][7]

• Bamford has said that accepting medication became an important part of her improvement. Looking back, she said she believed earlier mood-stabilizer treatment might have allowed her to avoid some major depressive episodes. [1]
• In a 2018 interview, Bamford said she was taking Depakote, Seroquel and Prozac and described bipolar-specific medication as having made a major difference for her. [5]
• She has also described exercise, meditation, 12-step fellowships and support from friends and family as useful parts of self-care. [1]

• Bamford has said that after finding a medication combination that worked for her, severe depression became much less frequent. In a 2016 interview, she said she had “rarely felt any sort of depression” in the years following her hospitalizations. [6]
• Bamford has also emphasized that getting better can be an uncomfortable process and has encouraged people going through it to recognize that they are not alone. [7]

• Bamford has used stand-up, interviews and Lady Dynamite to speak openly about bipolar II disorder, hospitalization and other mental-health experiences. She has said that seeing other public figures disclose bipolar disorder helped reduce her own shame about the diagnosis, and she has criticized using words such as “crazy” to shame people away from seeking help. [8]
• She has also said that talking publicly about her breakdown made her feel more useful, while expressing reluctance to describe herself as an activist simply because mental illness is part of her work. [1][9]

“I’m sure had I been on [mood stabilizers] a lot earlier, I would have been able to miss out on a bunch of major episodes of depression.”

— Maria Bamford [1]