The international superstar was first diagnosed in 2001 after she was hospitalised following a breakdown and now she has returned for treatment after a few rough years. ‘I didn’t want to believe it,’ she told People magazine of her initial diagnosis.Mariah claimed that she’s had to seek treatment after ‘the hardest couple of years’, which has included a split from her husband Nick Cannon to a failed engagement with billionaire James Packer as well as a dismal reality show. The mother-of-two, who shares six-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe with Cannon, is now taking medication to help with the condition and she’s seeking ‘the proper balance’. She said: ‘It’s not making me feel too tired or sluggish or anything like that.’
The star is treating bipolar II disorder, which can involve periods of depression as well as hypomania and can see those affected suffer from sleeplessness and mood swings. The symptoms led Mariah to think that she had been suffering from a sleeping disorder, as she said: ‘But it wasn’t normal insomnia and I wasn’t lying awake counting sheep. I was working and working and working … I was irritable and in constant fear of letting people down. It turns out that I was experiencing a form of mania. Eventually I would just hit a wall. I guess my depressive episodes were characterized by having very low energy.
I would feel so lonely and sad — even guilty that I wasn’t doing what I needed to be doing for my career.’ After living with the diagnosis for 17 years Mariah, who is working on her new album, is now at a point where she feels more comfortable to talk publicly. ‘I’m just in a really good place right now, where I’m comfortable discussing my struggles with bipolar II disorder. I’m hopeful we can get to a place where the stigma is lifted from people going through anything alone. It can be incredibly isolating. It does not have to define you and I refuse to allow it to define me or control me,’ she said.