beethoven was mentally ill

Bipolar or Manic depressive persons show various striking symptoms, almost absent in Beethoven. In manic periods they are overactive, they hardly sleep or eat and sometimes spend vast amounts of money. In depressive periods they hardly leave their beds and the only thing they want is to die. Beethoven was a very disciplined worker. He arose at sunrise, drank a lot of coffee and went to his desk. He worked till noon and then left for a long walk. In the afternoon he went to a restaurant for a meal and he spent the evening again at his desk. Before going to sleep he used to read a few pages of a book. It went this way year after year and that doesn't fit at all to a manic depressive patient. It is true that he twice suffered from a depression: in 1802 and 1813. But in those years he had good reasons for such feelings. In 1802 he realized that he probably would go deaf and in 1813 he had lost his famous Immortal Beloved. Clearly he was not a happy man in those years.