Mariah Carey talks mental health
The octave-leaping siren was diagnosed in 2001 after being hospitalised for a physical and mental breakdown
Mariah Carey opened up about her mental health on and confirmed her longstanding battle with bipolar II disorder.
“Until recently, I lived in denial and isolation and in constant fear someone would expose me,” the 48-year-old singer told People. “It was too heavy a burden to carry, and I simply couldn’t do that anymore. I sought and received treatment, I put positive people around me and I got back to doing what I love — writing songs and making music.”
The octave-leaping siren was diagnosed in 2001 after being hospitalised for a physical and mental breakdown that coincided with years of personal and professional upheaval. The Dreamlover chanteuse, whose celebrated career has been marred by episodes of erratic behaviour in recent years, “believed she had a severe sleep disorder,” but what she was experiencing was a form of mania, she said. “It wasn’t normal insomnia and I wasn’t lying awake counting sheep. I was working and working and working,” she said. “I was irritable and in constant fear of letting people down.”
Bipolar II, formerly called manicdepressive disorder, involves recurrent episodes of depression and hypomania — a less severe form of mania than the type associated with bipolar I — and symptoms can also include irritability, sleeplessness and hyperactivity.
“Eventually, I would just hit a wall. I guess my depressive episodes were characterised by having very low energy. I would feel so lonely and sad — even guilty that I wasn’t doing what I needed to be doing for my career,” she told People.
The five-time Grammy winner said that she’s in therapy and that she takes medication to manage the lifelong disorder.