Celebrity Meltdown

Specialists say Roseanne may have developed "multiple personalities" to cope with such trauma. She was hospitalized several times, including a yearlong stay in a state hospital at age 16. Roseanne is still in "heavy duty psychotherapy," as she puts it, and has taken antidepressants, including Prozac, but she has still managed to become a successful comedian, TV star, producer and writer, and host of the syndicated talk show, The Roseanne Show.

Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Isaac Newton had some choices for treatment: bloodletting, purging, potions of mixed sedatives, prayer, a walk in the woods or a good book. These were your options if you suffered from mild schizophrenia or manic depression—as Newton did—in the late 1600s.

Nobody knew exactly what was wrong with him and most simply labeled him "mad." But Newton's insanity seems to have inspired his discovery of calculus, the laws of mechanics and gravity. In fact, during a manic period in his early 20s, Newton worked night and day—often forgetting to sleep, eat and bathe—and made most of his important discoveries.

But the insomnia and anorexia, on the other hand, often induced periods of depression. Newton suffered memory loss, confusion and paranoia.

As a child, he raged against his mother; he was a hypochondriac; he didn't fit in with his classmates; and he was oblivious to his schoolwork. Newton thought he had a personal relationship with God, was obsessed with sin and preoccupied with death.

But in his 50s, Newton entered a manic phase that led him to London, where he worked with the government, served as the president of the Royal Society and was eventually knighted. He died at 85, an unusually old age for the time.

Franz Kafka (1883-1924)

Serial heartbreak, an empty job and a dysfunctional relationship with his father are the essence of Franz Kafka's genius work—and may ultimately have led to his demise.

Kafka's work is inspired and defined by loneliness, frustration and oppression, anxiety, stress and depression. While his options for therapy included walks or personal retreats or possibly psychoanalysis (since he lived in the same time and place as Freud), Kafka considered writing to be his "form of prayer," doubling as therapy. In his stories, he toyed with both expressionism and surrealism, and his style was an ironic mixture of fantasy and reality.

Like so many other greats, Kafka didn't live to see his celebrity. His best known works, The Trial., The Castle., and Amerika., were published posthumously, against his wishes that all manuscripts be destroyed after he perished.

Kafka developed tuberculosis in 1917 and died seven years later in an Austrian sanitarium.

Jean-Claude Van Damme (1960-)

Throughout his vibrant career in film, Van Damme has used drugs, been diagnosed with cyclic manic depression and accused of spousal abuse. As a teenager, he took refuge in karate, ballet and in daydreams, which he calls "rosy dreams." Today he takes medication to help mitigate the effects of his illness.

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)

The man famous for splashing and dripping paint across canvases was also a depressed, argumentative boozer, who ultimately died drunk behind the wheel. During his lifetime, he saw an analyst, but never took medication. Reaching fame posthumously, Pollock is now considered the pioneer of expressionism, his pieces selling for as much as $18 million each.

Carrie Fisher (1956-)

Carrie Fisher, best known as Princess Leia in Star Wars., has suffered from manic depression since age 15. After a 1985 overdose, she spent 37 days in rehab, where she was treated for an addiction to the prescription barbiturate Percodan. Talking and writing herself through her manic episodes, often staying up all night to do so, Fisher relies on comic relief to get through her depressions. Combined with medicine and therapy, Fisher's coping skills have allowed her to focus on her work.

Tipper Gore (1948-)

Former vice-president Al Gore knows depression more intimately than most, since his wife and mother-in-law have battled with it for years.

Tipper Gore's mother endured a lifelong dependency on antidepressants and was hospitalized twice.

Tipper Gore herself succumbed to depression after her son nearly died in a car accident in 1989. She was diagnosed around 1991, tried various medications and sought professional guidance from a social worker friend.

After her decision to publicize her experience with clinical depression in 1999, the Second Lady fought to raise awareness for sufferers by coordinating the first-ever White House Conference on Mental Illness.