From Mental Floss: Dickens would start falling into depressions with the start of each new novel. The first one to cause him problems was one of his lesser-known works, The Chimes, in 1844. After that, Dickens’ friends wrote that he became down every time he set to work on a new project, but that his mood would gradually lift until he was in a kind of mania by the time he finished. That's the mental condition known as "being a writer."
I am the opposite. Manic at first and then as i near the end and have to write in the small details i get bored and slow down and then feel depressed because i'm bored and slowing down.
Either way, I think every writer could be diagnosed as bipolar. :-)
he walked 10 miles a day too..