A Tuesday evening reflection

The world tells us that we must be celebrity. God tells us that we can be legend.

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Three people have asked me about Charlie Sheen and bipolar disorder

Perhaps that's been prompted by (A) Charlie Sheen's out-of-control antics during the past 72 hours and (B) the "Being Bipolar" series that I recently started on this blog about my own experiences and struggles with bipolar.

And now it's being asked aloud by a lot of bigger news outlets.

I'm not too "hip" about things on the celebrity scene. In fact, the last thing that I would ever want to be called is a "celebrity". I am a character. My life is filled with lots of other characters (though more than a few are what pop culture would call "celebrities"). Charlie Sheen's behavior exemplifies why I don't want to be known as a celebrity.

But the more I've looked into his peculiar case, the more I am finding myself also wondering - not a professional psychiatrist, mind ya: I'm just a guy who has the condition himself - if Mr. Sheen might have this illness.

Because, I see a lot of myself during my worst manic episodes in Mr. Sheen's bizarre activity.

And if it's bipolar disorder, then I genuinely feel sorry for the man. Because I know what that's like. And as I've said before, it's not something that I would ever wish on someone else. Not even my worst enemies.

A person in this condition needs help. More than he or she could possibly realize it on their own. I certainly didn't understand how much I needed it. It took a hard crash to get me stabilized and even then, it was two years before I finally came to my senses enough to comprehend what bipolar did to me and my loved ones.

Mr. Sheen, I don't know if you'll ever read this. But if you do, from a person who does have bipolar disorder and is learning to live with it and have a much more productive life than I've ever been able to have before: Dude, you're in a bad place. And you can't get out of it on your own. You need help. If not for yourself then, think of your beautiful little twin boys. They need you to be the most you can be. Bipolar disorder robs a person of that. You don't deserve to have that stolen from you any more than anyone else does.

And if Mr. Sheen is still doing drugs, well... I can't express enough how much he needs to get off that crap. Heck, I don't drink and I've never done recreational drugs: there's been nothing to chemically multiply the effects of bipolar... but even so, without that bipolar is still hell to deal with.

Charlie, man, if you've got bipolar disorder, get help and get cleaned up. You got too much of a good life that God has blessed you with and you gotta start being appreciative of that.

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Carrie Fisher now sez: STAR WARS wasn't worth it

Carrie Fisher (depicted at right in the "Slave Leia Metal Bikini" from Return of the Jedi) was on The Today Show this morning shilling her new book Wishful Drinking. And she let loose what will no doubt be a shocking revelation to millions of fanboys: that she now regrets having anything to do with the Star Wars movies. That if she had known it would become so popular, Fisher would have "never" signed up to be Princess Leia at all. Fisher now blames the instant celebrity that Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and the ensuing sequels brought her for her bipolar disorder, her drug addiction (Cary Grant was brought in by her parents to counsel her to "don't eat acid"), and the failure of her relationships such as her onetime marriage to Paul Simon.

I'm inclined to suggest that adolescent celebrities read what Carrie Fisher is saying here, and that they would do well to heed the wisdom she's offering.

It's safe to say that childhood stars do not go through the most well-adjusted periods compared to "common" kids. And it makes sense that there's a hideous cost to the spotlight at that stage in life. Kids at that age are just then figuring out their own sense of identity. They're going through confusion enough as it is, without being called upon to be a public icon all the time. No wonder so many of them turn to substance abuse: they practically need that to feel numb to themselves.

Thanks to my good friend Eric Wilson for passing the story along :-)

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