Sinéad O'Connor's Mental Health Struggles: Inside the Irish Singer's Tumultuous Ups and Downs

The "Nothing Compares 2 U" singer has died at age 56

In 1990, the world was introduced to Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor after the release of her hit, soulful cover of "Nothing Compares 2 U." In addition to her music, the singer-songwriter led a life of purpose and activism — oftentimes speaking up about her mental health struggles and tumultuous upbringing.

O'Connor — who died this week at age 56 — endured various forms of abuse from her mother as a child, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress syndrome and borderline personality disorder, tried to take her own life more life than once and lost her son to suicide in 2022. Still, she remained open about all of it.

"I really feel the use of the word ‘crazy,’ or associated words as terms of abuse, should become a crime punishable by imprisonment," she told PEOPLE in 2012. "We need to be compassionate and gentle toward those of our brothers and sisters who have been hurt and are wounded and fragile, while also strong and alive. We should not mock those who are brave enough to show their wounds."

Here's everything to know about O'Connor's struggle through the years:

Related: Sinéad O'Connor Dead at 56

O'Connor was abused by her mother as a child

Born into a Roman Catholic family in Glenageary, County Dublin, her parents ended in divorce and O'Connor was sent to live with her mother, who regularly abused her.

“It was physical violence, perpetrated particularly in a sexual manner,” she told PEOPLE in 2012. “She wasn’t trying to have sex with me, but she spent a good time trying to destroy my reproductive system. It was psychological, too. It was a torture chamber, really. But I forgive my mother; she just wasn’t well.”

She managed to run away at 13 to live with her father. Life was more stable there but she acted out by shoplifting, skipping school and she was sent to Magdalene asylum for “unruly” women for 18 months.

“I will never experience such panic and terror and agony over anything like I did at that place,” she told SPIN in 1990.

Her mother was killed in a car accident in 1985

Despite their complicated past, O'Connor was devastated after the death of her mother.

“I suddenly became an angry sort of person,” she said in 2007. “I was angry with God. I mean, I was f—ed up about the abuse and I would have had to go and sort my head out anyway, but the thing that really made it hard for me to get up off the f—ing floor was my mother dying.”

Five years later she released her second album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, which featured the chart-topping “Nothing Compares 2 U." The music video gave an up-close look at O'Connor's deepest emotions as she coped with the death of her mother.

“The song reminded me of my mother,” she later admitted. “I made an emotional connection, which I was not expecting — it didn’t hit me when I was recording the song. It only kicked in when I was being filmed. So I was sitting there, thinking about me mother, and trying hard not to bawl my eyes out.”

In 1992, she appeared on Saturday Night Live and infamously ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II on camera after learning about the ways in which the church was covering up the sexual abuse of children.

She tried to take her own life in 1999

In 1995 she found herself embroiled in a lengthy custody battle with John Waters, the father of her second child, daughter Rosin. (She had previously had a son, Jake, with her first husband John Reynolds, a music producer she married in 1987.)

Facing accusations that she was an unfit mother, she tried to take her own life in 1999. “That was on my 33rd birthday, after a session in court that day where it was suggested that for the rest of my life I would only see my daughter once a month,” she said in 2005. “I made a very serious suicide attempt, and I did almost die.” The singer had reportedly taken 20 Valium pills.

She survived and threw herself into motherhood and religion. That same year she became an ordained priest of the Latin Tridentine Church, taking the name Mother Bernadette Mary and earning an archdeacon title for her work with Dublin’s homeless.

O'Connor was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the mid-2000s and tried to take her life again

Related: Sinéad O'Connor Says Artists Must Start 'Difficult Conversations' as She Reflects on 'SNL' in New Documentary

In the mid-2000s she spoke out about her struggle with the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia, but another serious medical battle was still to come. With her depression worsening, she was diagnosed as suffering from bipolar disorder. “I don’t think I was born with bipolar disorder—I believe it was created as a result of the violence I experienced,” she said during a 2004 interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

At the time, her third marriage to friend and collaborator Steve Cooney in July 2010 ended with a separation the following March.

In September 2011, she shared what seemed to be suicidal thoughts on social media: “I want to go to heaven SO bad. Have for [years] … Can’t manage any more. Badly wish [could] die without it ruining kids’ lives.” Her tweets resulted in a visit from the police, and an open letter from O’Connor to her fans in which she called her worrying tweets “a cry for help” and was pleased it had been taken seriously. “Suicide doesn’t solve your problems. It only makes them infinitely, un-countably worse,” she wrote.

That December, she married Irish therapist Barry Herridge during a brief ceremony in Las Vegas, but their marriage ended after 18 days and she announced that they were separating. In January 2012,  she claimed she “took an overdose” while in Los Angeles, and then two days later tried to take her own life once again. Within days she was back on Twitter saying that she was in “serious danger” and pleading with her fans to help her find a psychiatrist in Dublin.

She revealed she was misdiagnosed in 2013

After nearly a decade on medication, she revealed she suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome, which she attributed to her abused past.

“I’m delighted to be able to say that after 10 years of poisoning myself with these drugs and having to live with the extremely difficult side-effects of them I can shortly begin the very, very slow indeed, process of getting them out of my system and my life and getting my life back,” she told an Irish outlet.

In 2015, O’Connor wrote on Facebook that she had "taken an overdose" after reportedly sparring with her exes Donal Lunny and Frank Bonadio over custody rights of her two youngest children: Shane and Yeshua.

“There is no other way to get respect. I am not at home, I’m at a hotel, somewhere in Ireland, under another name If I wasn’t posting this, my kids and family wouldn’t even find out. Was dead for another fortnight since none of them bother their hole with me for a minute. I could have been dead here for weeks already and they’d never have known.” PEOPLE later confirmed that she had been found safe and taken to a hospital.

She failed to return home from an early morning bike ride in 2016 and police categorized her as a "missing suicidal"

On the morning of her reported disappearance, O’Connor penned a note to her eldest son Jake on Facebook referencing an ongoing custody battle over her younger son Shane. “Do not abandon your brother or any other of my babies again,” she wrote. “What you have done to your brother and your mother is LITERALLY criminal.” It’s unclear exactly what prompted the outburst, but the following day O’Connor was discovered safe by authorities.

Two years later, she announced her conversion to Islam.

The singer released a memoir, Rememberings, in 2021 where she opened up about her trauma and said she's going to therapy

At the time, O'Connor spoke to PEOPLE and said she hit a low in 2015 after undergoing a radical hysterectomy to treat endometriosis.

"When I had the surgery, I was terribly triggered," said O'Connor, who had spent the years since in and out of psychiatric facilities.

She also said she was having biweekly check-ins with her medical team.

"You can never predict what might trigger the [PTSD]. I describe myself as a rescue dog: I'm fine until you put me in a situation that even slightly smells like any of the trauma I went through, then I flip my lid," O'Connor said. "I manage very well because I've been taught brilliant skills. There was a lot of therapy. It's about focusing on the things that bring you peace as opposed to what makes you feel unstable."

O'Connor revealed her 17-year-old son Shane died by suicide in January 2022

The "This Is the Day" singer revealed the tragic news in a series of posts on Twitter.

"My beautiful son, Nevi'im Nesta Ali Shane O'Connor, the very light of my life, decided to end his earthly struggle today and is now with God," she tweeted. "May he rest in peace and may no one follow his example. My baby. I love you so much. Please be at peace."

In a follow-up post, the singer tweeted a Bob Marley song, which she dedicated to Shane. "This is for my Shaney. The light of my life. The lamp of my soul. My blue-eye baby," she wrote. "You will always be my light. We will always be together. No boundary can separate us."

Hours later, Sinéad uploaded a photograph of Shane to her feed. She left the post uncaptioned. Sinéad shared Shane — her third of four children — with Lunny.

One week later, she was hospitalized after posting a lengthy message on Twitter earlier that day saying she had "decided to follow [her] son."

"There is no point living without him," she wrote, referring to her son Shane. "Everything I touch, I ruin. I only stayed for him. And now he's gone. I've destroyed my family. My kids don't want to know me."

In a follow-up tweet she apologized, writing, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I am with cops now on way to hospital."

She continued, "I'm sorry I upset everyone. I am lost without my kid and I hate myself. Hospital will help a while. But I'm going to find Shane. This is just a delay."

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