Carrie Fisher

• Fisher said she was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 24, but she did not accept the diagnosis at the time. Because she was still using drugs, she questioned whether clinicians could reliably distinguish bipolar disorder from the effects of substance use. At 28, after becoming sober, she was diagnosed again and began to accept that she had bipolar disorder. [1]
• Fisher went on to discuss the diagnosis openly in interviews, books and public appearances, making her experience with bipolar disorder a significant part of her later public advocacy. [10]

• Fisher described mania as initially exhilarating. She said it could bring intense confidence, rapid thoughts, little need for sleep and a sense that her ideas were unusually important or achievable. At other times, that energy became difficult to control and led to impulsive behaviour. She contrasted this with depressive periods in which her energy and ability to function could fall dramatically. [2][1]
• She also publicly described a severe episode in 1997 involving deep depression followed by a psychotic break and psychiatric hospitalization. Fisher recalled being awake for six days and experiencing hallucinations and delusional beliefs while in hospital, including becoming convinced that events she watched on CNN were personally connected to her. [3][2]
• Fisher continued to experience mood episodes later in life and said that people close to her sometimes recognized changes in her mood before she did. She spoke about bipolar disorder as an ongoing and unpredictable part of her life rather than something that simply disappeared. [6]

• After accepting the bipolar diagnosis at 28, Fisher took lithium for about a year. She later said that she disliked how it made her feel and stopped taking it, but subsequently returned to psychiatric medication to help control her moods. [1]
• Fisher also underwent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for severe depression after other treatments had not provided sufficient relief. She spoke openly about the stigma surrounding ECT but said that, in her own case, she found it “very effective.” She later received maintenance ECT for a period as well. [4][5]

• Fisher did not describe bipolar disorder as something she had permanently overcome. In a 2010 interview, she said it remained “an unpredictable element” in her life, but that she had become better at knowing what to do when symptoms emerged. She also said that friends and other people close to her sometimes recognized changes in her mood before she did. [6]
• She described managing her mental health through professional treatment and support from other people. Fisher emphasized that coping with serious mental illness was not something she believed people should have to do alone, pointing to medication, therapy and community as important resources in her own life. [7]

• Fisher became a prominent advocate for reducing stigma around bipolar disorder and other mental illness, using her own experiences openly in interviews, books and public appearances. In 2016, while receiving an Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism at Harvard, she said she had never been ashamed of her mental illness and noted that parents sometimes told children struggling with a diagnosis that “Princess Leia is bipolar too.” Harvard said she was recognized in part for her efforts to destigmatize mental illness. [10]
• She also encouraged people with bipolar disorder to seek support and connect with others who shared similar experiences. In an advice column published shortly before her death, Fisher told a young reader with bipolar disorder that community could provide both perspective and comfort, and described living with the illness as an ongoing challenge that people should not have to face in isolation. [9]

“We have been given a challenging illness, and there is no other option than to meet those challenges.”

— Carrie Fisher [9]