Aspies For Freedom

I know this may seem like a silly excuse for a new thread but I was looking through numerous sites on whether Tim Burton is autistic, bipolar or both and I now want to ask people.

Apparantely, Tim Burton is bipolar rather than autistic. However, he may have been misdiagnosed as many autistics do or it could be the other way around.

Well, what do you think? Do we have any burton fans in the house?!

I've come across quite a bit of information (from a variety of different sources) that states that bipolar disorder is more common in people with AS than in the general population.
In fact that's how I came across AS in the first place as I was diagnosed with mild 'atypical' bipolar disorder and was researching the subject.

Bipolar disorder is entirely different to AS but I can understand how the two could coexist, and also how the difficulties of growing up with AS (especially if it is undiagnosed) could lead to developing bipolar type symptoms.

I know that my depressive periods centre around feeling 'broken', hopeless, socially inept, social phobic and feeling completely incapable of understanding and functioning in the world around me.
My periods of 'high mood' involve feeling like a genius, especially in certain fields of expertise, becoming completely obsessed with certain interests and becoming even more self-obsessed and overly talkative. My 'theory of mind' also deteriorates to the point where I believe I am the only sentient person in the world.

It is as though my bipolar type symptoms magnify my AS traits, and also that my AS traits trigger my bipolar type symptoms. Obviously I am not a psychiatrist, but it does seem to make sense to me that having AS would make someone more susceptable to bipolar disorder.

Yes, Bipolar Disorder is much more common than AS, but if you have AS you are more likely to develop bipolar disorder (according to some researchers).

If someone has bipolar disorder, it DOES NOT mean they have AS aswell though.