Pop star Mariah Carey has revealed she suffers from bipolar disorder, a diagnosis she received more than a decade ago. She made this known for the first time in an exclusive interview with US People magazine on her battle with bioplar disorder. Carey told People magazine she got the diagnosis when she was hospitalised following the emotional and physical breakdown and only sought treatment recently because she refused to believe it.
"I lived in denial and isolation and in constant fear someone would expose me," Carey said.
"It was too heavy a burden to carry and I simply couldn't do that anymore. I sought and received treatment, I put positive people around me and I got back to doing what I love, writing songs and making music."
Carey, one of the best-selling music artists in the world with 200 million records sold and hits like We Belong Together, said she was taking medication for the bipolar II form of the disorder, which is marked by less severe mood swings between depression and hyperactivity.
The singer detailed how she was diagnosed in 2001 but refused to believe that she was ill. She said she finally got proper treatment after "the hardest couple of years I've been through."
She has bipolar 11 disorder, which results in long periods of depression and hypomania.
“For a long time I thought I had a severe sleep disorder. But it wasn’t normal insomnia and I wasn’t lying awake counting sheep. I was working and working and working … I was irritable and in constant fear of letting people down."
She said she is in therapy and is taking medication. She said she's in a good place and is working on a new album, due for release later this year.
