A representative of Catherine Zeta-Jones has revealed that the actress checked into a mental health facility earlier this year. Read the full post.
Apr 13
2011
02:59 PM ET
Catherine Zeta-Jones reveals struggle with Bipolar II disorder
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How brave of her to allow the public to know about her illness. If more people “came out,” they would be role models not only to help erase stigma, but for our loved ones who are ill and often refuse to go to the hospital. Mental illness is a chronic illness. From time to time, the person needs to be stabilized and then go on with their life. There are stressors or triggers that may upset the balance and they need to be addressed. Thank you Catherine for being a role model even if you did not intend to be one. You give us hope!
I agree completely. The stigma attached to this disease and comments and perceptions by the uninformed keep people from seeking help or continuing treatment after diagnosis.
I suffer from bi-polar disorder. I just have to suffer with it as I cannot afford treatment and can’t stop working lest I lose my place to live and my vehicle. I find it difficult to pity someone with a couple of hundred million having the same illness as I, except I’m broke and can’t take time off for rehab.
Doesn’t matter how much monoey you make the disease doesn’t discriminate. You can always find help, check into the county run programs that offer reduced price counseling, meds or group meetings that cost you nothing. Make an effort and stop whining about other peoples money.
So speaks the ignorant.
You can NOT always find help. That’s so utterly ridiculous I’m not going to write the magnum opus I’d need to explain just how wrong you are. If it help were so easy and so available, there would not be so many untreated people.
Jeff, you don’t have to have lots of money to get help. Find the right doctor who will find the right medication for you. I was up and down with bipolar for years. My doctor found just the right dose of lithium for me and it has worked wonders. I am on that and an antidepressant and have felt great for 10 years now. And I have very little money. I wish you the best and hope you will find a good doctor who can help you.
I doubt she’s looking for sympathy. If anything, you’d think people would be happy to have someone like Catherine representing their illness instead of the likes of Sheen to show that being bipolar is not synonymous with being a nut job.
She is a Class Act!
I know first hand the struggle of being bipolar and find some of the comments related to this article from ignorant people hell bent on continuing the stigma preventing some from seeking help for mental or emotional problems until it’s too late.
Nina your comments show that you too are a class act, and also well educated on this terrible disease. I too was diagnosed w/Bipolar many yrs ago and was luckily placed on a great med right away.They also have Group Therapy in all states in the US,and in each county… That are FREE!As for Jeff’s comment the only one that’s having a “Pity Party” is you. The majority of us are in the exact position as you are! I suggest you look into getting on meds, and then going on from there.I Lost my Best friend of 27 yrs, she too was diagnosed w/ Bipolar.She complained as you did,but really it was not about having the time to find help,the money,or finding someone to talk to! It was the Stigma of having a (Mental Health) problem.She hung herself on August 27,2010…So if I sound like a Bi$ch,I have done my job, because you damn sure sound like your worth saving.As for Bob YOUR A WASTE OF SPACE ON THIS EARTH!I step in stuff …better than you!
I have a friend who was bipolar and she too killed herself after trying for years to get help she could afford. She made too much money to get state/fed aid and not enough to afford to pay for it herself. Free group therapy was useless for her without meds. She made the HUGE mistake of going to HR and asking for assistance, whereupon her job was suddenly “unavailable” the next day.
I am so glad that she got the help she needed and is doing so well. And I am thrilled to read so many positive comments here at this site. Depression and bipolar are as much a physical illness as mental, and the right meds and/or therapy can help so much. I have had to deal with depression and bi-polar most of my life. And believe me, you don’t have to have lots of money to be able to overcome this. I found the right doctor who recognized the signs of bipolar and got me on the right medication. Its been about 10 years since then, and I haven’t had a problem with depression or bipolar since then. I spent years before that in misery. I’m so thankful she is doing so much better.
I’m so sorry to hear about Ms. Zeta-Jones’struggle with this disease. Everyone thinks being glamorous and celebrity is all fun, but coupled with her husband’s health issues and raising young children, that life can be as difficult, if not more so than us regualr folks. Everyone always expects celebrities to be perfect and be able to handle anything. I have always liked her and her husband as actors. I hope now in his recovery he will be able to be her rock and support as she has been for him through his illness. God bless them and their family.
Some of you haven’t a clue about mental illness. I’m a nurse who works on a psych floor at a hospital and I can tell you that there is a difference between true mental illness and behavioral problems. And money does NOT always make mental illness easier to deal with. I see the rich, the comfortable, the working-poor, and the dirt poor come in and I can tell you that no amount of money rids them of the mental anguish they suffer from. I can’t say for sure, and none of us can, but Lindsey appears to be behavioral mixed with drug abuse. True mental illness hides in the shadows. The person you are sitting next to probably has it and you just don’t know it. Your insensitive comments make it hard for someone with true mental illness to come forward. They don’t want to be associated with the behavioral/drug seekers either. So before you classify someone, try to be understanding.
Headline says Zeta Jones in Rehab. Since when has anyone called a mental health clinic rehab? Rehab denotes an addiction, henceforth “rehabilitation”, she isn’t in rehab author. I applaud you for writing it with some taste, but the headline is very misleading
Bless you Catherine and I sincerely hope and pray that you’ll feel better soon. I’m so sorry to hear of Michael Douglas’s throat cancer. How awful! Catherine I am Bi-Polor also and luckly I’m pretty much in control right now with Medications and visits with my doctor.
Please hang in there…you’re in my daily prayers, as is Michael.
What is it with some of you people (ie: Jeff below) who have to knock Catherine off b/c she’s going to get help and that she’s well-off? In past interviews, she has stated that she’s worked her butt off, working from theatre to the movie business. I really feel sorry for you guys on here who have to dump on her success just because of your pitiful jealously. If you don’t like her, then you go work hard and make some money then! Everyone has problems, esp. to endure a husband who has throat cancer among other things. Kudos Catherine for getting the word out there about mental health.
Never forget her in Return of the Native. She joins lots of other actors in having mental health issues to overcome; it’s cool that she’s out and proud about it. It’s just one more stigma that society needs to get over.
10k a week can give you a much nicer room and many more nurses, and give you access to different kinds of medication, but there are some things money will never be able to buy. Bipoloar disorder is a terrible, nasty disease, with no real “cure.” Even the most expensive medications have horrible side effects that few people manage to escape (which is why so many people refuse to take the meds and continue to suffer), and a good therapist is essential to finding ways to live – and even thrive – with bipolar disorder. I hope that Catherine will decide to share her story ~ there are so many out there with no hope that they will ever be able to live anything resembling a “normal” life (whatever “normal” is, anyway)… but it *is* possible… and you truly don’t need millions of dollars to do so. I am thankful every single day that my husband has been able to fight his way back to life with this disease… after 15 years on full-time disability, with medications and therapy for all that time, he now has a rewarding full-time career and has been able to go off the terrible drug lithium, has lost 117 pounds, and gains more self-confidence every day. But every day he still struggles. It takes a really brave person to be able to learn to live with bipolar disorder… and you do NOT have to be rich in order to do so.
I’m in tears reading the comments of those whose lives are affected by depression. I can’t imagine feeling so down and feeling like I have nowhere to turn. I wish the best for all of you.
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