Linda Hamilton Bipolar Disorder

Linda Hamilton is well known for her role as Sarah Connor in "Terminator" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day", "Beauty and the Beast", "Dante's Peak" and "Point Last Seen".  

Linda Hamilton was diagnosed at a young age with bipolar disorder, but resisted treatment until she was around 40 years old.

 In 1997 Linda Hamilton told interviewer Luaine Lee, "I'm on anti-depressants now. I will be on them for the rest of my life. It changed my world. There's depression, but also that extreme brilliant high. My manic spells are manageable and are great - my work spaces where I'm doing so much. But what happens is then, all of a sudden, you plunge because you've depleted yourself on such a level that one day you wake up with a gigantic lump in your throat. And there it is. So I would fall down and just not be able to get myself up. Just the smallest thing would set me off."

A biographer notes that Linda's dad, who passed away in a car accident when she was five, was also diagnosed bipolar. What is not mentioned is whether her twin sister, Leslie, is manic depressive as well, which would be interesting to know.

Many of you may wonder: "How did Linda Hamilton cope with bipolar disorder without receiving medical treatment?"

Hamilton despite her professional success, she was self-medicating with drugs and alcohol and her mood swings damaged two marriages. Hamilton struggled with symptoms of bipolar disorder for 20 years, a time she calls the lost years, before overcoming it. The reason why she refused to get treatment for her bipolar disorder was that she worried that treatment would diminish her talents. Fortunately, she is now on medication and speaks openly about being bipolar. "Somebody needs to come out and make this okay for people to talk about and get help and take advantage of the resources," she told the Associated Press.

It has to be noted that Linda Hamilton away from the spotlight  was living a personal hell: volatile, violent relationships, panic attacks and alcohol and drug abuse. Today Linda, a single mother of two, is revealing the truth behind her private battle, a lifelong struggle with mental illness.

Linda Hamilton spoke publicly in 2005 to Oprah Winfrey about her manic depression that went undiagnosed for most of her life.

Check out below the excerpt from videotape.

Linda Hamilton (Has Bipolar Disorder): And I know that my parents found me beating a puppy with a stick when I was five. I'd remembered ever since then that horrible tale of, you know, beating a precious soul with a stick, and that's pretty much the way my life went.

Oprah Winfrey: For Linda Hamilton, a lifelong battle with mental illness began early.

Linda Hamilton: My whole childhood was lost to me.

Check out below Linda Hamilton talking openly about her bipolar disorder.

What a wonderful woman she is! 

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