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Fri, Mar

Kanye West Speaks On Struggle With Bipolar Disorder

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Popular American rapper, Kanye West has opened up about his struggle with bipolar disorder. Kanye, who has been campaigning against the stigmatization of people with mental health issues, opened up in the new season of David Letterman’s Netflix show, “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.”

 

In a clip of the episode, which is set to drop Friday, Letterman asks Kanye, “What is the mechanism that is malfunctioning or is taking a break in your brain, do you know?”

 

Kanye replied “I wouldn’t be able to explain that as much just because, you know, I’m not a doctor. I can just tell you what I’m feeling at the time, and I feel a heightened connection with the universe when I’m ramping up. It is a health issue.

 

“This — it’s like a sprained brain, like having a sprained ankle. And if someone has a sprained ankle, you’re not going to push on him more. With us, once our brain gets to a point of spraining, people do everything to make it worse. You have this moment [where] you feel everyone wants to kill you. You pretty much don’t trust anyone.

 

“When you’re in this state, you’re hyper-paranoid about everything, everyone. This is my experience, other people have different experiences. Everyone now is an actor. Everything’s a conspiracy. You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things,” West said.

 

West recounted being diagnosed with bipolar disorder two years ago and described his experience with an involuntary psychiatric hold in 2016.

 

“They have this moment where they put you, they handcuff you, they drug you, they put you on the bed, and they separate you from everyone you know. That’s something that I am so happy that I experienced myself so I can start by changing that moment,” he said.

 

West first shared his bipolar disorder diagnosis in 2018 on his album, ‘Ye’. He referenced taking medication to treat his condition in his conversation with Letterman.

 

“If you don’t take medication every day to keep you at a certain state, you have a potential to ramp up and it can take you to a point where you can even end up in the hospital.

 

“And you start acting erratic, as TMZ would put it,” he said in reference to his impromptu visit to the celebrity gossip website’s headquarters, which sparked headlines.

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