Diva To Rule All Divas Mariah Carey Reveals Struggle With Bipolar Disorder

Mariah Carey – blessed woman who bestowed upon the world the gifts that are ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You‘, ‘We Belong Together‘ and ‘Always Be My Baby‘ – has today come forward to share her battle with bipolar disorder.

In an interview with People, Carey admitted that the last few years had been “the hardest couple of years I’ve been through“, and drove her to seek help:

Until recently I lived in denial and isolation and in constant fear someone would expose me. 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.

She was first diagnosed in 2001, but she “didn’t want to believe it“, when she was hospitalised for a physical and mental breakdown after recording and filming both Glitter the album and Glitter the movie, and the end of a three-year relationship with singer Luis Miguel.

At the time she posted on her website: “Basically all I really want to say is I don’t know what’s going on with life. I’m trying to understand things in life right now, and so I really don’t feel that I should be doing music right now.

For a long time, Carey thought she had a severe sleep disorder, exhausted and irritable from overwork, when she was actually “experiencing a form of mania“. Meanwhile, her depressive episodes made her feel “lonely and sad” with very low energy, “guilty that I wasn’t doing what I needed to be doing for my career“.

Carey says she’s now in therapy and taking meds for bipolar II disorder – a less severe condition than bipolar I, marked by hypomanic rather than manic episodes: “I’m actually taking medication that seems to be pretty good. It’s not making me feel too tired or sluggish or anything like that. Finding the proper balance is what is most important.”

She’s currently working on a new record set for release later this year, and finally feels comfortable talking honestly about her illness:

I’m just in a really good place right now, where I’m comfortable discussing my struggles with bipolar II disorder. I’m hopeful we can get to a place where the stigma is lifted from people going through anything alone. It can be incredibly isolating. It does not have to define you and I refuse to allow it to define me or control me.

Back in October 2016, Carey split from her then-fiancé Aussie billionaire casino guy James Packer, who just last month resigned as the head of his empire due to mental health issues. Last year she received a settlement of between $6 and $13 million bucks from the guy for ‘inconveniencing’ her.

Essentially, Carey is a boss, and we wish her all the best.   

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