Successful acting/comedy career with OCD and bipolar disorder

Quotes

I’m always grateful when people talk about their experience on the planet. It makes me feel so much less isolated and so much more hopeful. I’ve got a subscription to Bipolar Magazine [bp Magazine]; it comes out quarterly.

Maria Bamford

But at least I can try to change it for myself. Because I feel super insecure and embarassed and ashamed about mental health issues. That’s why I want to talk about it. There’s sort of a hostility even, where you go, “I’m just gonna say what I am and then see if you can’t handle it.” And I think it’s more talked about now.

Maria Bamford

References

• Maria Bamford Mines Mental Illness for Her Sitcom, ‘Lady Dynamite’

  Over more than two decades as a stand-up, Ms. Bamford, 45, has become a cult favorite by blending kooky impressions and expertly written jokes with an overdose of human empathy. She has been open about her mental illness — she has dealt with obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder and anxiety, and has spent time in psychiatric wards — but has managed to turn her struggles into fertile ground for humor.

  The New York Times

• The Weird, Sweet Comedy of Lady Dynamite

  In her act, she’s long been candid about her struggles with depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder, but she also wrings laughs from her heartfelt impressions of her family and friends from childhood, which she fleshed out in her cult web series The Maria Bamford Show. Her wonderful 2012 stand-up film The Special Special Special saw her perform for an audience of two: her parents.

  The Atlantic

• The Weird, Scary and Ingenious Brain of Maria Bamford

  You would think that stage fright, at this point in her career, wouldn’t be an issue. Bamford is 43. She has been doing stand-up comedy since her early 20s, when she was living in Minneapolis, a two-hour drive from her childhood home in Duluth. She has put out three well-received albums, twice done sets on “The Tonight Show,” landed a guest role on the third season of “Louie” and has had two half-hour specials on Comedy Central.

  The New York Times Magazine

• Stand-up Comedy and Mental Illness: A Conversation with Maria Bamford

  Over the last several years Maria Bamford has become one of the most acclaimed and original stand-up comics in the country. Along with Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifianakis, and Brian Posehn, Bamford was part of the Comedians of Comedy tour; she’s also released three solo albums and done two Comedy Central specials. Bamford’s voice (or rather, voices) can be heard regularly on Nickelodeon, Adult Swim, PBS, and elsewhere.

  Slate