Gregg F. Martin

• Martin has said that he developed bipolar disorder during the Iraq War in 2003, although it went unrecognized for more than a decade. In 2014, while serving as president of the National Defense University, he entered what he later described as full-blown mania and was removed from his position and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. [2]
• Later that year, after his mood shifted into severe depression and psychosis, he was diagnosed with bipolar I disorder. Martin has since spoken and written publicly about the diagnosis and the years in which the condition had gone undetected. [3]

• After developing symptoms during the Iraq War, he experienced increasingly pronounced periods of elevated mood and depression while continuing to serve in demanding senior military roles. He has said that the elevated periods initially brought greater energy, drive and creativity, but eventually became disruptive and uncontrollable. [1]
• By 2014, Martin described himself as being in full-blown mania, becoming increasingly erratic and disruptive in his behaviour and judgment. His condition ultimately contributed to his removal as president of the National Defense University. [1]
• Afterward, he experienced a prolonged period of severe depression accompanied by psychosis, primarily delusions. He has described feeling hopeless and experiencing passive suicidal thoughts. His depression and psychosis continued into 2016, when he was admitted to a VA psychiatric hospital. [3]

• In March 2016, Martin was admitted to the psychiatric inpatient unit at the VA hospital in White River Junction, Vermont, after his depression and psychosis had continued to worsen. He has said the hospitalization helped stop his decline, although several medications and treatments tried during this period did not initially relieve his symptoms. [4]
• Later in 2016, he began taking lithium after other treatments had not worked. Martin has said that his symptoms improved within days of starting it. He has also described therapy, regular medical care, exercise, sleep and reducing stress as important parts of managing his condition. [6]

• Martin has described a major improvement beginning after he started lithium in 2016. He has said that his severe depression and psychosis improved rapidly after starting lithium and that he then gradually rebuilt a stable and purposeful life. [4]
• He has emphasized that he does not consider his bipolar disorder cured. Instead, he describes stability as something he maintains through ongoing treatment, attention to sleep, exercise, reducing stress, and support from family and clinicians. [6]

• Since retiring from the Army, Martin has spoken publicly about bipolar disorder, military mental health and stigma, drawing on his experience as a senior officer whose illness went undiagnosed for years. He has argued that military culture can make people reluctant to acknowledge mental illness or seek care, and that leaders need to treat mental health problems as illnesses rather than personal weakness. [1]
• He has written and spoken widely on the subject, including in Bipolar General: My Forever War with Mental Illness, and has used his experience to encourage earlier recognition, treatment and more open discussion of mental illness within the military and beyond. [9]

“I began this steady climb out of the pit of bipolar hell … back into a relatively happy, healthy, purposeful life.”

— Gregg F. Martin [4]