Princess Leia was one of us...

[Itisnoteasybeingdifferent]

From the Beeb...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38422973

She (Carrie Fisher) was a manic depressive. It is inspiring to me to understand we are in good company when things are going pear shaped..

Mind you, with Darth Vader for a dad ......

And she showed that you can be successful, eccentric and totally cool too.

Yup, she's one of us.

My Bipolar has royaly effed things up for me at times, but it's also given me amazing times too. Gone far too soon, RIP Carrie.

She had more to give, but I'm glad that she gave so much while she was here.

I love her writing. It's not the usual manic depressive stuff about having a MH issue and the meds, episodes, hospitalisations and Psychiatrists. She wrote about life, not just about her diagnosis and doctors, and I flipping love her for that.

To me she's more real than other famous people who tend to thrive on Bipolar as a career, that was just a part of her appeal to me. She was a lot of things besides a MH diagnosis. I liked her a lot.

Feel free to flame me but there are others who seem to make a living out of 'being Bipolar '. She never claimed to be 'touched with fire', she just set the fireworks off

Yes indeed there a few who make a living out of it.. Ruby Wax comes to mind.. as does Stephen Fry ...

BUT and it is a big but... when high profile types make a fuss.. the little people like us benefit. You can't love a film star then dislike someone who has the same illness as your idol..

I can understand where you are coming from really a MH condition does not define you as a person. On the other hand I do think that people highlighting their mental illness in the media is helping to break down barriers and tackle stigma. MILs only understanding of DHs psychosis comes from when Stacey on Eastenders had post-partum psychosis and she keeps asking if he has bipolar, because shes heard of that too (he doesn't ).

I suppose its like paralympians, its only recently that the mainstream view has shifted to focus on them as atheletes rather than people with disabilities. Its taken years of campaigning for people with physical disabilities to be seen as people first. The difficulty with MH is you can't see it and so if people don't highlight the positives the only time people hear about mental illness tends to be when something tragically wrong, which then reinforces the negative steriotypes furthur. How often do you hear about someone who has a well managed mental health condition and is living a productive life, versus those that have become unwell and harmed themselves or someone else. I think people like Stephen Fry have done a huge ammount towards people feeling its ok to talk about mental illness.

But Carrie did talk about MH quite a bit and helped us all, she just didn't make it absolutely everything about her life. I never said I loved her (I didn't know her!), I said I loved that she didn't let it define her.

I'm all for speaking up, but some people do more harm than good. Carrie spoke out in a good way. Stephen Fry on the other hand...I really don't see anything about him that helps the cause. He's entirely self promoting IMHO. I'm not sure why I dislike him (note I didn't say hate as I don't know him either). But to me he's the last person I'd want to be associated with, he just doesn't come across as sincere.

I agree we need more awareness, but I'm not sure that some people should be the ones in the public eye?

To me it's like saying that I don't think Jeremy Corbyn should be leader of the Labour Party, I'd still vote Labour on principle but I'd prefer a different leader.

Each to their own I guess?