e Charlie Sheen and Bipolar Mania

      I was just on the radio in Dallas. I thought the interviewer did an excellent  job. He wanted to help his audience understand bipolar disorder. He was respectful and really seemed to get it that bipolar is an illness. I explained that Charlie Sheen either has bipolar and has hidden it really well- which would not be impossible considering that Hollywood can be pretty insular- but I think he did some crack and brought out the full blown manic episode. I am tired of journalists not doing even just a wee bit of homework before they write their articles. Here is another one I read this morning. I wrote the author with some info on mania. This article is interesting because she does a very good job of recording what Charlie Sheen is actually saying and doing. It could be in Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder on the mania explanation page!

The article is from Salon.com and the writer Mary Elizabeth Williams ought to know better! (PS. I wrote this rather judgmental line and then heard from MaryElizabeth. She pointed out that she is there to report the news and not diagnose anyone. I do see where she’s coming from. I also feel the media can go with their hunches and find those who can speculate on what’s wrong. But that is a fine line as well! What do you think?  Unfortunately, I then read another article  and got pretty mad again. I put the link at the bottom of this post. Julie)

This is the opening paragraph from the Salon.com article:

“What is going on inside the head of Charlie Sheen?” That was the question posed in the opening moments of Tuesday’s special edition of “20/20.” An hour later, America had the answer its suspected for quite some time now: ego and delusion.

There wasn’t much in the well-hyped ABC special on Sheen to surprise anyone who’s been watching clips of the headline-grabbing star’s recent torrent of sound bite-rich media appearances. Viewed in one big, black market-grade dose, however, the intimate look inside the head and home of Charlie Sheen made for riveting television. It was deeply depressing and flat out frightening — and often, unnervingly, very funny. The guy looks more cadaverous by the minute and his megalomaniacal fury is a slow motion train wreck, but there’s no denying the guy can turn an entertaining phrase. So when Andrea Canning promised Sheen “in his own words,” there was no doubt viewers were in for some wildly colorful stuff. And sure enough, he delivered. He may just be an out-of-work sitcom actor, but if you read a short story in the New Yorker in which a self-destructive narcissist bragged that his exploits made the Rat Pack and the Rolling Stones look like “droopy- eyed armless children,” you’d think, this writer’s amazing.

Click here to read the full article.

Feel free to send me your comments, espeically if you have had an agitated manic episode. We know that his body is just churning and his mind is exploding with the thoughts and he is going to be so incredibly worn out soon. I hope he makes it to the hospital before he does something to get himself into jail.

Then I read this article and got MAD again!

Julie

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