Mental Health Illness and Their Lived Experience

Running head: ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY1
Introduction
There has been many cases, where actors have survived mental health illness and have
used their lived experience for advocating people have mental health disorder. This because
of their inability to compartmentalize the emotions and the characters from their daily life.
Carrie Fisher was the one who was primarily diagnosed with the bipolar disorder issues in her
mid-twenties, but has been able to battle the condition successfully. Using Carrier Fishier as
the main character, the assignment will focus on the incidence of bipolar disorder, with its
diagnostic criteria as treatment procedures.
Overview of the person
Carrie Frances Fisher was an American actress, who is best known for his famous
character of playing Princess Leia in the films of Star Wars and for which she had been
nominated for several awards. She was also blessed with the talent of a writer and also wrote
scripts ad screenplay. When Carrie Fisher was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she first
refused to accept until she understood at the age of 28. She checked herself in to a 30 days
rehabilitation care, where she found cases similar to her, and found solace in the stories of
others. In her autobiographies, she has described about her experience being a patient of a
bipolar disorder. Fisher have also mentioned about the usefulness of Electroconvulsive
therapy (ECT) in treating clinical depressions, although the process is still stigmatized to be
against the social model of disability. Fisher’s honesty about her disease and symptoms and
her response to the treatments can be impactful for individuals who had been facing with the
same kind of health issues. This acts as a shining example of the bravery in mental health
disease that is surrounded by stigma.

ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY2
Analysis/ diagnosis
Carrie Fisher got addicted to drugs like cocaine and prescription medicines. She was
diagnosed with the disorder after she visited the hospital for a drug overdose that almost
killed her. However, she has confessed blatantly, that she used pain medications like
Percodan for supressing her maniac episodes of bipolar disorder. She had an excellent sense
of humour and also ended up giving nicknames to the bipolar moods- Roy (the wild ride of
the mood), Pam (the one standing on the shore depressed and sobs). Bipolar disorders can
occur at any age, but normally it is diagnosed in the early 20’s and the teenage years. The
symptoms of the disorder might vary from one person to the other. The acute phase of the
symptoms are followed by simultaneous remission and relapse. Remissions have been found
to be complete, but many of the patients have residual symptoms. The functional ability has
been also found to be impaired severely. Carrie Fisher has admitted that he had been involved
in drug addiction even after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It has been seen that
patients who are maniac are inexhaustibly, excessively and impulsively the indulged in
certain high risk activities without having the insight in to the potential harm related to this.
As per the Diagnostic criteria of DSM-5, a person should have experienced at least
one maniac episode or hypomania. During this period of mania, a patients normally displays
inflated self-esteem including grandiosity, thoughts of racing and psychomotor agitation.
Fisher has described feeling maniac that once she used to be super energetic. She has defined
it to be an uncontrollable form of energy that often drives people, to make poor decisions.
She has given a name to this form- “Roy” (the super energetic episodes). She had also openly
discussed about the depressive episodes and she used to refer to them as “Pam” (the one who
is very sad, depressed and even hopeless). The DSM manual has also mentioned about the
recurrent thoughts of the deaths, with recurrent thoughts of failure, worthlessness or guilt.
Hence, all the clinical manifestations displayed by the actor is as per the diagnostic criteria of