8 Celebrities Who Have Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder affects millions of Americans — an estimated 2.8 percent of US adults, according to the National Institute of Mental Health — yet this mental health condition is still highly stigmatized. That’s why many celebrities who have bipolar have chosen to speak publicly about their experiences.
According to Mayo Clinic, bipolar is a mental health disorder characterized by oscillating emotional highs (categorized as either manic or hypomanic episodes) and lows (depressive episodes). These extreme, unpredictable changes in a person’s mood or behavior often result in disruptions to their life. For example, people experiencing mania may lose sleep and engage in reckless behaviors; on the flip side, people experiencing depression may isolate themselves as they struggle to keep up with life’s demands.
Today, psychiatrists recognize two distinct forms of bipolar: bipolar I and bipolar II. People who receive a diagnosis of bipolar I have had at least one manic episode, while people with bipolar II have had a major depressive episode and at least one hypomanic episode, but no manic episodes. Contrary to popular belief, bipolar II isn’t a “less severe” form of bipolar; the major depression associated with this subset of the condition can be just as serious as mania.
Scientists aren’t totally sure what causes bipolar disorder. However, it does appear to have a heritable component. Regardless, people who have bipolar typically require treatments like therapy or medication to manage their symptoms.
Negative portrayals of people with bipolar in pop culture have contributed to the harmful stigmas surrounding this condition. However, celebrities like Demi Lovato, Mariah Carey, and Selena Gomez are using their reach to change that narrative. These days, more and more people are beginning to view bipolar disorder as just that: a treatable mental health disorder, not something to fear or be ashamed of.
Below, read up on 12 celebrities who have opened up about their experiences with bipolar disorder.
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Selena Gomez
In a 2020 Instagram Live convo with her friend Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez opened up publicly about her bipolar diagnosis.
“Recently I went to one of the best mental health hospitals in America, McLean Hospital, and I discussed that after years of going through a lot of different things, I realized I was bipolar,” the actress shared, per Elle UK. “So, when I know more information, it actually helps me. It doesn’t scare me when I know it.”
“I felt a huge weight lifted off me when I [got diagnosed],” Gomez told the US edition of Elle in 2021. “I could take a deep breath and go, ‘Okay, that explains so much.’ ”
Most recently, Gomez spoke about her experience with bipolar disorder at her 2023 Rare Impact Fund Benefit. “I struggled with the world inside my head for a long time and I felt lost and I felt hopeless at times,” Gomez said, per People. “And in 2020, I received my diagnosis of bipolar disorder. And to be honest, everything quickly changed. I actually got the knowledge and the answers that I had been desperate for for so long. And understanding that obviously makes me become more aware of it and I’m less afraid than I used to be.”
The Only Murders in the Building star has gotten personal about other health issues, too, including her battle with lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease.
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey first spoke publicly about her struggles with bipolar II disorder in a 2018 cover story for PEOPLE. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter received her diagnosis all the way back in 2001. At the time, though, she “didn’t want to believe” that she needed help.
“Until recently I lived in denial and isolation and in constant fear someone would expose me,” she told the magazine. “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.”
“I’m actually taking medication that seems to be pretty good. It’s not making me feel too tired or sluggish or anything like that,” Carey added. “Finding the proper balance is what is most important.”
Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato (who uses they/them and she/her pronouns) has spoken openly about living with bipolar disorder for years. The Disney Channel alum first shared their diagnosis in 2011, when they were just 18 years old. At the time, they were also struggling with an eating disorder and self-harming.
“I remember being 15 years old on a tour bus and watching fans follow my bus with posters and trying to get me to wave outside the window. And all I could do was just sit there and cry,” Lovato recalled at a concert in 2021, per PEOPLE. “And I remember being in the back of my tour bus watching my fans and crying and being like, ‘Why am I so unhappy?’ “
Getting diagnosed with bipolar allowed Lovato to properly treat her “extreme [emotional] lows,” which came as a huge relief. Although they’ve had some serious struggles since the — including a near-fatal drug overdose in 2018 — the “Sober” singer says they’re now doing better than ever.
“I want [teenagers] to know that talking to people and asking for help is more than okay and is absolutely what you should do,” she told TODAY’s Savannah Sellers earlier this year.
Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher was also a well-known advocate for mental health awareness. Prior to her death in 2016, the beloved actress chronicled her struggles with substance use and bipolar disorder in her writing, including her best-selling 2008 memoir, Wishful Drinking.
Per Scientific American, Fisher once wrote in an advice column that she initially rejected her bipolar diagnosis when she was 24. It wasn’t until she “overdosed and got sober” at 28 that she began to address her symptoms.
In the column, Fisher went on to advise the person she was writing to — who also had bipolar — to connect with people who share their diagnosis.
“We have been given a challenging illness,” she added, “and there is no other option than to meet those challenges.”
David Harbour
Strangers Things star David Harbour received his bipolar diagnosis after experiencing a manic episode at 25. He recounted the whole story in a 2018 episode of the podcast WTF, telling host Marc Manon, “I had a bit of a break where I thought I was in connection to some sort of god that I wasn’t really in connection to… It was like I had all the answers, suddenly.” The episode was so alarming to his family that Harbour’s parents checked him into a psychiatric hospital.
Prior to this experience, Harbour said he used to “romanticize” mental health facilities. But his stay was a sobering reminder of how serious mental healthcare can be.
Today, Harbour manages his symptoms with mood-stabilizing medications. “I’ve been medicated for bipolar for a long time, and I’ve had problems going on and off [medications],” he explained. He’s also aware of his biggest triggers – namely, “spirituality,” which has historically played a role in every manic episode he’s had.
“It’s like, I need to just eat a cheeseburger, smoke cigarettes, and hang out,” he joked. “Because the minute I get close to that — what I consider a flame of, like, ‘the answers’ and the mysticism, and I’m completely ‘present,’ it’s like I’m out of my mind.”
Linda Hamilton
Terminator star Linda Hamilton first spoke out about living with bipolar in 2004. In an interview with AP Radio, the beloved actress said her “very severe” mood swings were negatively affecting her life and relationships. However, she feared seeking treatment for her symptoms.
“A lot of my early career was based on that angry woman that was just an organic outgrowth of the chemical imbalance that I had. And I thought, I’m going to become normal and I won’t have those extraordinary gifts as an actress,” she explained.
Luckily, that was not the case. Medicating her symptoms actually transformed Hamilton’s life for the better.
“… There is nothing that has been diminished or dulled [about me],” she added. “I don’t feel that any of my greatness has been covered over. … My quality of life is more amazing than I ever could’ve imagined in those 20 years of struggling with illness.”
Halsey
Halsey was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 17.
After years of learning to manage their symptoms, the singer-songwriter now knows when they need to step back and prioritize their mental health. They also have the resources to get in-patient psychiatric care in moments of crisis, something they’ve done multiple times since launching their career.
“I’ve been committed twice since [I became] Halsey, and no one’s known about it. But I’m not ashamed of talking about it now,” Halsey told Rolling Stone in 2021. “It’s been my choice. I’ve said to [my manager], ‘Hey, I’m not going to do anything bad right now, but I’m getting to the point where I’m scared that I might, so I need to go figure this out.’ It’s still happening in my body. I just know when to get in front of it.”
Bebe Rexha
Bebe Rexha first went public with her bipolar diagnosis in 2019. Although she was “very fearful” of the stigmas associated with the disorder, the pop singer felt an obligation to use her platform to spread awareness. The hope was that by sharing her story, she’d help other people who were struggling with bipolar feel less alone.
“That was my worst fear all my life: going crazy,” she told Self at the time. “I felt like me opening up to my fans was me finally saying, ‘I’m not going to be imprisoned by this [disorder].’”
Over the years, Rexha has continued to raise awareness about bipolar. “It’s a part of me I am constantly dealing with,” she told People in 2021. “It’s tough.” She’s even documented her mental-health struggles in her music — most notably, her song “Break My Heart Myself” directly addresses her experience with bipolar. (In one verse, she references the estimated percentage of Americans living with the disorder.)
“Sometimes putting it in a song normalizes it for me,” Rexha added. “It’s just my truth.”
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta-Jones has bipolar II, which her reps announced publicly in 2011. According to ABC News, the actress experienced her first depressive episode as a result of the condition when her husband Michael Douglas went through a highly public battle with throat cancer.
“I’m not the kind of person who likes to shout out my personal issues from the rooftops but, with my bipolar becoming public, I hope fellow sufferers will know it’s controllable,” Zeta-Jones told InStyle in 2012, per USA Today. “I hope I can help remove any stigma attached to it, and that those who don’t have it under control will seek help with all that is available to treat it.”
Jane Pauley
Emmy-winning broadcast journalist Jane Pauley didn’t receive her bipolar diagnosis until she was 50 years old. (That’s highly unusual — for context, the average age of onset for this disorder is 25, per the National Alliance on Mental Illness.) It was 2001, and Pauley only began exhibiting symptoms after she was prescribed a steroid for an unrelated bout of hives.
“It unmasked what doctors described as a genetic vulnerability to a mood disorder,” she told CBS This Morning in a 2019 episode of the network’s “Stop the Sigma” series. “And by that time, I was in pretty deep trouble.” Her dramatic mood swings and behaviors were so out-of-character, her own husband “didn’t know who I was.”
At the time, Pauley retreated from the public eye for a three-week stay at an in-patient psychiatric hospital. To her shock and dismay, her doctor offered to give her a “cover story” about a thyroid disorder so she could avoid telling her employer that she had bipolar. “The only time in my life, and we’re closing in on 20 years, that I experienced stigma was that day, day one,” she added.
Per BP Hope, in her 2004 memoir, Skywriting, Pauley said she takes lithium, a mood-stabilizing drug that’s commonly used to treat bipolar. The medication has helped keep future manic and depressive episodes at bay. She’s gone on to become one of the most visible faces of bipolar disorder today.
Sinéad O’Connor
Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor revealed her bipolar diagnosis in a 2007 interview with Oprah. The condition has impacted her in different ways throughout her career. In 2012, she ended up canceling tour dates after experiencing a “v serious” mental health crisis.
“Doc had asked me not to tour but I thought was stronger than [I] am,” she tweeted at the time, per The Guardian. “… The singing part was fun though. But that’s only like 4% of one’s time.”
She later elaborated on her various mental health struggles — including borderline personality disorder and complex PTSD stemming from her abusive childhood — in Rememberings, her 2021 memoir.
Stephen Fry
Fry chronicled his journey with bipolar in his 2006 BBC special Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive. “For the first time… I had a diagnosis that explains the massive highs and miserable lows I’ve lived with all my life,” he said in the program, per The Guardian.
In the years since, Fry has become a vocal advocate for mental health awareness, working alongside charitable organizations like Mind in the U.K. to shatter stigmas surrounding bipolar. “I’ve always viewed [bipolar as], it’s not who I am. It’s a condition I live with,” he said in a 2018 podcast interview, per Independent.
After years of treatment, Fry has learned how to manage his symptoms, and the people closest to him know what signs of distress look out for. But that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten how serious episodes can get. “I’m not going to kid myself that [my bipolar disorder] is cured because it isn’t, that if I keep picking at the scab, it’s not going to be good for me,” he added.
