Common people do not have a monopoly on feeling hopeless and suicidal. It can happen to anyone, including celebrities.
When a depressed Sinéad O’Connor sequestered herself in a New Jersey motel room in 2015, crying out for help in a 12-minute YouTube video, it was out of desperation. But the reactions from people on the internet were extreme.
One comment on Facebook read:
“Suck it up, Lady!!! Don’t bring “US” into your sad little world. Go back home and spend your money in the PUB!!! and you know what, buy them a round for God’s sake.”
Just because someone may be rich and famous doesn’t mean they are at fault for not spending money on treatment to feel better. O’Connor was diagnosed bipolar and revealed her status to Oprah in 2007. However, she found out later, her true diagnosis was PTSD and depression.
Hopelessness is a heavyweight predicament for anyone, and it is difficult for anyone to ask for help — that includes celebrities.
Were Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade not entitled to feel powerless merely because they were celebrities? It’s a cliché, but celebrities are people, too. And Bourdain and Spade, while not bipolar, struggled just as much as we who are bipolar struggle.
Bourdain had it all: a successful docu-series on CNN, bestselling books, a couple of revered restaurants. But depression knows no boundaries. And Bourdain took his life despite his successes.
In fact, we never know what’s under the covers when it comes to anyone, let alone celebrities who keep their private lives under wraps.
Kate Spade’s death by suicide came as a shocker. Who knew the iconic handbag designer with more than 175 stores internationally was in so much agony?
Yet, some cried foul about these two celebrities, whose deaths occurred within a span of one week.
If they were at the top of their game creatively, financially, and sensibly, posited some insensitive yet vocal internet trolls, how dare they take their own lives? They had the money to seek treatment. They had many people in their lives to confide in. They had the wherewithal to check themselves into a psychiatric hospital or rehab and not have to worry about the cost of it.
But they didn’t. They died by suicide. And many people thought it was shameful and selfish.
Even Mariah Carey was not immune from personal attack when she came out as bipolar. “Mariah is full of s— and drugs,” one Facebook comment read. “I cannot stand that woman, now I know why,” read another.
Celebrities deal with the pressure of having to be ON all the time. Especially comedians like Robin Williams, who was also bipolar and died of suicide. We only see them in the public eye and don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes…
This article was originally published on the International Bipolar Foundation’s blog. For the full story, go here.
