If creativity is said to be related to bipolar disorder, but bipolar disorder is wrongly diagnosed, what is creativity really related to?

Creative people, such as novelists, are said to have more than their fair share of mental disorders, especially bipolar disorder:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity_and_mental_illness#Other_studies

The problem is, bipolar disorder is frequently overdiagnosed; that is, the diagnosis may be made in error:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080506074440.htm

Does this mean that creative people might have something other than bipolar disorder? What might be mistaken for bipolar disorder? It would have to be a condition in which the person could have dramatic changes in mood like bipolar. And it would also have to be a condition that the average psychiatrist rarely thinks of, and does not know how to diagnose, like multiple personality.

The first clinic outpatient that I ever diagnosed as having multiple personality had been under my care for several years under the wrong diagnosis, bipolar disorder. Having taken over her treatment from a psychiatrist who retired, I had continued the other psychiatrist’s diagnosis. I saw the patient monthly, renewed the medicine, and the patient was happy with the diagnosis and treatment.

True, the patient did occasionally come to her appointments in bright colored clothing and with an elevated mood, but that seemed perfectly consistent with the bipolar diagnosis.

However, I subsequently discovered that when she came dressed and behaving that way, she saw herself as literally being a different person, with a different name. And I learned that her regular self—who used her regular name, dressed conservatively, and had a reserved demeanor—had amnesia for those other sessions.

So, all in all, it became clear why bipolar disorder had been misdiagnosed, and that multiple personality was the correct diagnosis. And this kind of misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder is never considered by studies of creativity.

WARNING: If you are on medicine for bipolar disorder, continue your medicine, for three important reasons. First, bipolar disorder might be your correct diagnosis. Second, you might have both bipolar and multiple personality, in which case you would still need the medicine for the bipolar. Third, even if you don’t have bipolar, the medicine might be helpful to you if it happens to be sedating the alternate personalities who have been disruptive, and so it is useful to continue the medicine until specific psychotherapy to help those identities can replace the medicine. To repeat, continue the medicine prescribed by your doctor.