Bipolar Disorder and the Absence of Invincibility

It seems like ‘every-day average joes’ are constantly under the impression that celebrities, athletes and entertainers are different than us—invincible almost. At the same time TMZ and other celeb-gossip columns alike are flooded with headlines of another addiction, another civil suit, drug bust, arrest, or ‘sexting’ scandal. So are they different? Or are they human beings just like us, that make mistakes and need a little help every now and then.

Catherine-Zeta Jones has just recently been treated for bipolar disease, a disease that flared up from her every day stress and could easily happen to any of us, as psychological diseases can manifest themselves within us unknowingly. More specifically, Bipolar disorder, formerly known as manic depression, is both lifelong and recurrent. One can have bipolar ‘episodes’ every few years or go through them constantly. It has classifications of bipolar I where people literally have ‘polar’ opposite moods of either feeling like everything is perfect or get very irritable and angry, and bi-polar II where people swing from severe depression to a milder and briefer manic state called hypomania.

Catherine-Zeta Jones has been diagnosed with bipolar II which is one of the leading causes of drug and alcohol addiction. As you may have read in previous blogs, drug and alcohol addiction is commonly linked to other psychological problems called dual-diagnosis, and often not treated properly which is one of the highest relapse rates also.

No one is invincible! Don’t be afraid to admit a struggle and seek the help necessary to recover. And if you or a loved one are suffering from bipolar disorder (or another psychological problem) and drug addiction, seek out a dual-diagnosis program that with properly treat both.

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