Comedian Maria Bamford has spoken about drawing on her mental health struggles, including depression, bipolar disorder and hypomania, as the core material of her stand-up over a three-decade career. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter before a set at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, she said she is at peace with her work and herself, while acknowledging her style of confessional, unsettling comedy will not appeal to everyone.

Bamford's story is the subject of the documentary "Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story", made by Judd Apatow and Neil Berkeley, which premiered at Sundance before streaming on Netflix. Though grateful for the film, and for having Netflix's Ted Sarandos greenlight her earlier semi-autobiographical series "Lady Dynamite", Bamford remains wary of Hollywood praise, saying she turned to Al-Anon's 12-step programme to cope with the industry's fickleness, and that she continues performing partly to keep herself accountable and grounded.