to think it suddenly seems 'the in-thing' to suffer with bi-polar?

[Champersonice]

This is really getting to me. Perhaps these 'celebs' really are suffering with bi-polar but I remember the days when it was the biggest taboo. My mother suffers with this illness and it is just awful.

There have been so many and whilst I really believe some I really do not believe Kerry Katona and now Catherine Zeta-Jones. Apparantely, CZJ booked herself into a psychiatric hospital for becoming manic-depressive following her husband's cancer, and now, according to her publicist is "feeling great and looking forward to starting work this week on two upcoming films". Perhaps Ms Zeta-Jones should visit a real psychiatric hopsital (not a detox clinic) and see real life patients suffering with this terrible, terrible illness.

AIBU?

OP (yes YOU, champers )

it has sickened me that you can think that some people will publicly announce they have bipolar, as a stunt.

you know (or say you do) how devastating the condition is.

but you think people will make it up

i'll be sure to let my sister know that. she's currently on 1-1 care in a secure ward. very very poorly.

The thing is, many Bi-Polar sufferers self medicate with drugs/alcohol, so it's not as easy to determine which came first iyswim.

OP also means Other Posters/Other Posts...okay? Mon dieu!

Beaker, I think you and it appears, many others, see it that I am personally attacking their/their families illness. That is not the case, I can assure you.

I feel (maybe wrongly) that CZJ is playing on the illness. I think like some OPs (that is, OTHER POSTERS, btw!) have said:

1. she could be covering up another scandal which would be worse for her reputation
2. she could want the attention (yes, sounds nasty but this kind of things does happen so why should I ignore that fact?)
3. she could well suffer and want to get the story out before the press

But whatever the reason, I am not attacking people that suffer with this condition.

But Kerry K doesnt tell the world about it to raise awareness, she does it to try and line her pockets (again) and to "rebuild her career"

What career, I ask. What is she again?

She freely admits she is NOT taking Bi polar meds anymore.
She claims shes fine now.
She also isnt taking drugs anymore. Go figure.

Kerry K is not being looked after by those around her. She is exploited for money making purposes, imo. She is most definitely unwell.

I really don't understand why she would instruct her PR person to tell the world about this unless she's trying to raise awareness? Nobody would've known about it if her PR hadn't said anything. I know I'm going to get flamed for this but I bet a fellow patient was trying to sell a story claming she was actually on the drug and alcohol dependency unit of that facility so her people were forced to make a statement. She'd be no stranger to the old naughty salt having been with John Leslie and Mick Hucknall (Michael Douglas has battled with alcolism too) and she was pretty cavalier about smoking whilst pregnant (not saying that smoking whilst pregnant makes you a drug addict btw!).

She may be genuinely ill and drug and alcohol dependency could be a symptom of the illness but getting a publicist to make a statement about it sounds odd to me.

I'm sorry but with CZJ it is hard to buy it. She may have been through a hard time, yes, but she appears to be coping, giving interviews and most definately is not not delusional, having lost all sense of reality. I speak as someone who has worked with people suffereing with Manic Depression/Bi-Polar, and I think she does the real sufferers a disservice by got giving an accurate picture of what it REALLY looks like in the true sense of the disorder, or reflecting the fact that it's a serious mental illness.

And I meant to say, Beaker, sorry to hear about your sister.

What have I started?? But a good thing, no? Isn't this thread raising awareness? So a thank you to Ms CZJ, I think!

I would say its a good thing to show in despite having MH problems it is still perfectly possible to live a relatively normal life

You are incorrect champers about attacking my family and me.

You have repeatedley said you think people say they have bipolar, then use it for publicity.

that is what i object to. that you think people make up having a mental illness for publicity.

where do YOU draw the line?
what makes YOU believe you have the capacity to tell which ill person is telling the truth.

do you look at everyone who says they have bipolar with a sideways glance?

cos that's sure how i read your posts.

I suspect CZJ's stay at the mental health facility was about to be leaked to the press. Having her PR announce it is much more dignified, and prevents speculation about what her mental health illness actually is.

A lot of celebs check into 'facilites' when they are a bit knackered and things have got too much for them or they have something to promote. Money can buy you anything really even a diagnosis.

havent read every single post would be here forever.

I dont think anyone is saying though, that Bi polar isnt a terrible thing and that people make it up all the time.

If Kerry K is so sorry for what she has done, then why is she trying to be famous still above all else?
Why not spend all the time she lost with her kids. The only reason she talks about drugs and MH is because she has nothing else of intrest to say, and the media only pay her for that.

This is the woman who left her kids in the house for 3 days whilst snorting drugs and shagging her bloke upstairs.
She left class A drugs lying around in the bathroom.
I know many people with MH issues, they do not treat their children like that. If you look at the timeline of KK's drug use and pregnancies, its quite clear she used drugs and alcohol pregnant aswell. The woman makes me very very angry.

BiPolar is a terrible conditon. I feel nothing but sympathy for those living with it.

I do think that some slebs will use anything they can to gain attention. They do it all the time.

How many have had
Breast cancer 'scares'
Almost miscarriages
Thought
they were pregnant
Thought they couldnt get pregnant
Mental exhaustion

etc etc.
They never go to hospital, the are always 'rushed' to hospital. Nothing in their lives is normal.

They DO use this stuff because all they are concerned about is column inches because that is how they make their money.

Its why they get married and then renew their vows a couple of months later. Why the hell would you need to do that?

They said that CZJ has Bipolar 2. I have never heard of it so I dont know what it means. It makes perfect sense that the poor woman would have reactive depression after her husband's illness though.

Its a bit disingenious (sp) to imagine that every Z lister who says they have a mental illness is telling the truth. Time and time again it has been proved that a superstar's mental illness is actually a meth habit once they are no longer a superstar and they are not being protected.

KK may well have bipolar but I dont know how she could be properly diagnosed when she was off her tits on coke. How the hell do you manage to make an accurate dx when someone is using mood altering drugs?

TBH I dont think CZJ needs the publicity that having Bipolar would bring her. I suspect that the poor woman had a reactive breakdown once her OH was on the mend and it has been named something else for whatever reason.

Doesnt mean I dont feel for her.

Nullius

KK has made a fortune and blown it - people with bipolar can be shit with money. It's part of the illness.

"She admits she is NOT taking Bi polar meds anymore" - she may well not be. And? Doesn't mean that she doesn't need them. She may be functioning without them at the moment but that won't last. Or she may be trying to distance herself from the whole mental health issue by saying she's not taking them when in fact she is.

"She claims shes fine now" - doesn't mean she is. It's a cyclical illness anyway. Sometimes you are "fine".

"She also isn't taking drugs anymore." Good.

"OP also stands for Other Posters"

LOL. No, it doesn't.

There are a number of types of bipolar disorder:

* Bipolar I. There has been at least one high, or manic episode, which lasts for longer than one week. You may have only manic episodes, although most people will also have periods of depression.
* Bipolar II. Where you have more than one episode of severe depression, but only mild manic episodes (called ?hypomania?).
* Rapid cycling. You have had more than four mood swings happen over a 12 month period. This affects around one in ten people with the condition.
* Cyclothymia . The mood swings are not as bad, but are often longer. 

Obviously severity will vary too.

She also was never an addict although if she wasn't then what she was doing hoovering cocaine up her nose in the presence of her kids is beyond me.

Haven't read the whole thread but FWIW I can see where Champers is coming from (and she has stated that her own mother suffers from the condition so let's not condemn her as 'having a pop' at those who suffer with MH issues).

It does seem lately that any celebrity who has any kind of breakdown ends up being 'diagnosed with BP', much like it always used to be 'suffering from exhaustion and a few weeks in the Priory' when they'd overdone it on the drugs and/or drink.

It may well be that they are all suffering from the condition and it is more widely recognised and accepted these days which can only be a good thing, but I must admit my gut reaction to reading about CZJ this morning was ' another one jumping on the bandwagon', which I am more than willing to admit may be completely unfair of me.

It has made me read more about the condition, though, and there are varying degrees of bi-polar i.e. the manic side of it in it's mildest form here, which does often tend to be prevalent in 'creative types' so maybe those of us that have had our judgey pants on are being a bit unfair.

And going back to the original post - I think there's some truth in the fact that some mental health issues are more socially acceptable than others. You don't generally have people admitting - yeah, I have Narcissistic Personality Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorder. But yes, it's OK to have Bi-Polar Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or be alcoholic ...

Why label yourself at all through the media - why not just acknowledge you've been through a difficult time - people understand that!

CZJ is not really in the same universe as KK is she?

She may not be a brilliant actress but she is Hollywood Royalty. She doesnt need the publicity that pretending to have a MHI might bring her.

I think she has had a terrible time. Worrying about her OH, seeing him through his treatment. Its calmed down and she has broken down. It happens.

I hope she is ok.

Don't think it helped KK that that talentless buffon she was married too (and clearly adored) abandoned his family and shipped off to Oz with another woman.

She may have had spells of being a shit mother but at least she was there.

People pretend their children have cancer.

They are nothing to do with me.

It happens. It doesnt mean people then think everyone is watching families living with cancer like this

That said, how can you possibly know what is going on from the media? Its all made up and spun until it impossible to know what is real.