‘IT’S TIME BIPOLAR COMES OUT OF THE CLOSET’
Retired doctor hopes to shed light on disorder by auctioning 300 guitars he bought in manic binge
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, a song written for jazz singer Nina Simone, perhaps sums up how a lot of people living with bipolar disorder feel.
Dr. Barry Rich, for one, thinks the time has come for understanding.
Rich, a retired physician, is putting the final stamp on what was a two-year manic binge in which he bought 300 guitars. He is auctioning them on Sunday, May 7, at Able Auctions in Surrey.
“I have a 1941 Harmony Gaylord. I figure it was one of the last guitars made before Pearl Harbor,” he said. “I have a Gretch acoustic made in 1963 that’s as rare as hen’s teeth.”
Another guitar, a Guild Artist Award, was once owned by North Vancouver jazz guitarist Henry Young, long the principal member of Simone’s jazz band.
“That’s probably the most-coveted guitar for a professional jazz musician,” Rich said.
Retired since his diagnosis of bipolar disorder in 2010, he had his manic episode begin three years ago.
It lasted two years and almost killed him.
He describes it as expansive thinking, feeling no need for sleep, being driven 24 hours a day, at times being aggressive.
“I was feeling good to the point of too good, making grandiose plans, thinking with the absence of judgment,” he said. “You think you’re the smartest person in the world, but truth be told you are the only one who thinks so.”
He spent a lot of money on other things, too, but it was the, so to speak, urge to splurge on guitars that was all-consuming.
To a posed guesstimate of having spent somewhere around $120,000, that being about $400 per guitar, Rich could only wish.
“I don’t even know, exactly,” he said. “But it was more than that.”
He knows he won’t come close to recouping the money, but still 10 per cent of the auction proceeds will go to a bipolar charity, likely CREST. BD, which carries out research for bipolar treatment and care.
There is a reissued, limited-edition Larrivee Parlor ISS, the guitar Chris Hadfield played Space Oddity on in the International Space Station and signed by the astronaut. Rich can’t remember what he paid, but the manufacturer’s suggested retail price was $1,549.
A Chinese erhu and a sitar were meant to be learned.
“I never got around to it, Rich said. “I was going to learn the erhu, I was going to learn the sitar, I was going to tour the world, I was going to make music and talk about bipolarity.”
There is a Sparrow, like Larrivee a fabled Vancouver-made guitar, autographed by Chilliwack’s Bill Henderson and other local artists, and a Tinker built by East Van’s Ed Bond.
“I became very good at convincing people I was just slightly manic, convinced them I knew guitars and they didn’t, but it was run amok,” he said. “Some of the people close to me gave up on me.
“I was falling asleep at the wheel. I had a number of fender benders,” he said. “It’s just lucky I never hurt myself or others.”
He is telling his story because the stigma of mania is strong. It has the same Greek root, as he points out, as another word that carries negative connotations — manikós, meaning madness.
“People living with bipolar disorder do spend the majority of the time in depression,” he said. “There is a lot less empathy and understanding for the manic phase.
“My kids tried their damnedest to get me help, but I was able to convince the professionals I was still in control.”
For Rich, the manic episode ended suddenly.
“It was a year ago, it was abrupt,” he said. “I got one more pleading email from one of my kids and it suddenly hit me: ‘You’re right, what am I doing?’”
And now he wants to get the message out.
“It is time bipolar comes out of the closet,” he said. “I think a lot of bipolars stay in the shadows.
“The point I’m trying to make, the reason I’m coming out — and I’d call it a coming out - is to encourage other bipolars to stand up and be counted, basically.
“That’s the only way we are ever going to be understood, I guess.”