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In the final chapter of her 1995 memoir of manic-depression, An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison posed a question that has stayed on my mind ever since: “I have often asked myself whether, given the choice, I would choose to have manic-depressive illness.”

Characterized by extreme shifts in mood, “manic-depressive illness” was officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association in 1952.

Over the years, she candidly wrote about her experience, including in a 1992 memoir “A Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic-Depressive Illness.”

Bipolar disorder, labelled manic-depressive illness until 1980, affects around 1 in 100 people globally.

A deeper dive into how mental illness affected Byron and his family can be found in “Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament,” by Kay Redfield Jamison.