Jean Claude Van Damme and Bipolar Disorder

Jean Claude Van Damme born Jean Claude Camille Francois Van Vaerenbergh, 18 October 1960 is a Belgian martial artist and actor who is best known for martial arts and action movies. His most successful films include Bloodsport 1988, Universal Soldier 1992, Hard Target 1993, and Timecop 1994. Due to his physique and his Belgian background, he is sometimes known as "The Muscles from Brussels."

After studying martial arts intensively from the age of ten, Van Damme achieved national success in Belgium as a martial artist and bodybuilder, earning the "Mr. Belgium" bodybuilding title. He emigrated to the United States in 1982 to pursue a career in film, and achieved breakout success with Bloodsport (1988), based on the alleged true story of Frank Dux. He attained subsequent box office success with Timecop (1994), which grossed over $100 million worldwide and became his most financially successful film.

Van Damme was born Jean Claude Camille Francois Van Vaerenbergh (also spelled Varenburg) in Berchem Saint Agathe (Brussels), Belgium, the son of Elaina and Eugene Van Vaerenbergh, who was an accountant and owned a flower shop. He began martial arts at the age of ten, enrolled by his father in a Shotokan karate school. His styles consist of kickboxing, Shotokan karate, Muay Thai, and Taekwondo. He eventually earned his black belt in karate, later winning the European Karate Association's middleweight championship in a stunning upset versus the former champion Michael J. Heming (although he has claimed that he was "twice world champion"). He started lifting weights to improve his physique, which eventually led to a Mr. Belgium bodybuilding title.

At the age of 16 he took up ballet, which he studied for five years. According to Van Damme, ballet "is an art, but it's also one of the most difficult sports. If you can survive a ballet workout, you can survive a workout in any other sport." In the French-speaking world, Van Damme is well known for the picaresque aphorisms that he delivers on a wide range of topics (personal well-being, the environment, etc.) in a sort of Zen Franglais. Most iconic and often quoted was his repeated use of the English word aware during an interview for a French channel, to convey the notion of self-awareness as a key to success.

After the filming of the 1998 movie Knock Off, Van Damme was diagnosed with rapid cycling bi-polar disorder after becoming suicidal and started treatment on the bipolar medication sodium valproate aka Depakote to stabilize his mood.

In a 2009 interview in the British newspaper The Sun, promoting his film JCVD (of which Time magazine said "He deserves not a black belt, but an Oscar"), Van Damme indicated he experienced a period of homelessness "sleeping on the street and starving in L.A."

Van Damme has been married five times, including two marriages with bodybuilder and fitness competitor Gladys Portuguese. Van Damme has three children: Kristopher born 1987, Bianca born 1990, and Nicholas born 1995.

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