Although Carrie Fisher, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 60 following a heart attack, was best known to the millions of Star Wars fans all around the world as Princess Leia, many are also remembering the actress as an activist who helped destigmatize mental health issues.
As Fisher, who has also battled substance abuse problems early on in her life, told Diane Sawyer of ABC News back in 2000, “I used to think I was a drug addict, pure and simple – just someone who could not stop taking drugs willfully… but it turns out that I am severely manic depressive.”
Manic depression, also called bipolar disorder, is a conditioned marked by alternating periods of depression and elevated mood (also known as mania). During mania, patients can behave or feel abnormally energetic or happy, go without sleeping for several days at a time, and/or experience delusions or hallucinations, while depression episodes can be more difficult to treat.
Fisher told Sawyer that it took several years before she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and even longer to come to terms with that diagnosis, saying that she initially thought that the doctors only told her she was manic depressive “to make me feel better about being a drug addict.”
Following a stint in rehab, Fisher wrote a book about the experience called Postcards from the Edge. She eventually came to terms with the condition and worked to raise awareness of bipolar disorder, which was poorly understood by the general public at the time, Polygon explained.
‘You can lead a normal life’ with treatment, she emphasized
During her interview with Sawyer, Fisher called bipolar disorder “a world of bad judgment calls. Just every kind of bad judgment, because it all seems like a good idea at the time… You can’t stop,” she told Sawyer, adding, “I outlasted my problems. I am mentally ill. I can say that. I am not ashamed of that. I survived that, I’m still surviving it, but bring it on. Better me than you.”
“The only lesson for me, or anybody, is that you have to get help. It’s not a neat illness. It doesn’t go away. I’m just lucky this hasn’t happened more,” Fisher told People. She tended to use humor to deal with her condition, the Washington Post noted. “That’s my way of surviving, to abstract it into something that’s funny and not dangerous.”
In 2001, Fisher spoke about mental health during an Indianapolis rally to increase state funding for addiction and mental health treatment services, according to ABC News. Also that year, she was honored by the National Alliance on Mental Illness for her work helping end mental health discrimination and stigma. In 2002, Fisher was recognized by the Erasing the Stigma Leadership awards for her work “speaking the truth about mental illness.”
“There is treatment and a variety of medications that can alleviate your symptoms if you are manic depressive or depressive,” Fisher told USA Today in 2002. “You can lead a normal life, whatever that is. I have gotten to the point where I can live a normal life, where my daughter can rely on me for predictable behavior, and that’s very important to me.”
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Image credit: Gage Skidmore
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