One thing that occurs to me as I peruse this thread, is that the "celebrities" who have been cured, or are able to function enough to write, perform, travel, etc, are far more likely to have the support (financial and social) to have all the little daily things done for them, so the majority of their energy may be conserved for their creative/vocational pursuits. I thought about this while reading recent articles about Ms. Hillenbrand and her remarkable achievements. While I can only begin to imagine the strain on their relationship, her husband was there to take care of food, laundry, cleaning, bill-paying: lifestuff.
Then the Money followed, so we might presume a small staff of people to manage these things. I would guess the higher up the celebrity scale you go, the more likely and the more vast the presence of support staff becomes. I often feel that if I had someone taking care of the whole ball of daily energy-drains, I might actually be able to get better, let alone work on that manuscript that is collecting dust.
As it is, I pay someone from time to time to bring food, and someone else to clean once it's impossibly dusty and gross, but even with that level of help, I am often overwhelmed and undone by bills, unexpected circumstances, repairs, clothing or household needs, doctors' visits, bare-pantry syndrome--you all get it. I don't think the people on this celebrity list ever had to chose between bathing or making food for their "one big thing" of the day.
I do wish a bunch of these high-profile sufferers would start an advocacy group themselves, and with a chorus of well-known voices, start raising funds and awareness. It would just be so enormously helpful. Their influence with the general public is one thing, but add to that their spheres of influence in other circles and so much could be accomplished.
