When a celebrity posts about their medical conditions...

I think in your case, I think that I too would have felt annoyed.

However, in cases where the condition or disease are rare or are simply not ones the receive a lot of press, then I think a celebrity discussing that they have it can be helpful, both in bringing it further into public attention, and also in possibly making some other people who also have the same issues feel as though other people might understand their situation better now.

I wasn’t affected by the same thing, but had several friends (and some pea people) who I knew struggled with infertility. And then Celine Dion went on and on about her struggles. And all I could think was how nice for her that she could afford to do IVF over and over until she got her kids while the eBay day person could barely afford to do it once, if at all.

When my sister got cancer, it was almost the same timing as Princess Kate. She wanted NOTHING to do with anyone bringing her name up and her cancer. HATED it.

Personally I never had anything that I know if that a celebrity has (I have one thing and most people don't talk about it, cause it is gross) but if I heard a celebrity having it, I guess it would get my attention, but I don't know if I would really care or not what their plan/situation was. I don't know honestly.

It really depends for me on the portrayal. I think when we can talk about bipolar disorder it raises awareness. I like awareness. But I remember feeling like they portrayed Carrie Fisher as bat shit crazy. I hated that.

On the flip side, I think some of the things about mental health are so stigmatized that it takes really knowing a person to realize that this person has symptoms that are almost shocking but I know this person and they are not crazy. I'm pretty open here but some things I have kept private because I do carry some shame and I do think it would be judged. And maybe I shouldn't feel that way because you guys seem to have a pretty good handle on who I am as a person.

leeny I've been listening to Jamie Lynn Siegler and Christina Applegate's podcast. Theyre good at teaching, while being themselves. It's not just about MS, I can apply their thoughts to living and coping in other situations.

I roll my eyes at announcements of celebrity CANCER BATTLE and then learn they had a pre-cancerous skin cancer removed. It's extremely common in our families, thank you outdoor loving lives. I apologize if it sounds like I'm minimizing it, but it's a given it should be monitored. The word cancer is scary, but it's not like immediate doomsday in 2024 and there has been a lot of education about what to do to minimize it.
I apologize if I sound like a jerk.

I'm bipolar- you all know that by now- I don't know why I keep thinking that new people are reading this.

I absolutely loved, loved, loved Carrie Fisher. She was amazing. So honest, and funny, and a real advocate for those of us who have it. And it eventually killed her (indirectly) and I miss her a lot. I was always so glad she brought a stigmatized illness out in the open.

Patty Duke was also good for that. There are a good number of celebrities that are/were bipolar: Mariah Carey, Demi Lovato, Charlie Sheen, Russell Brand, Brian Wilson, Kurt Cobain, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Vivien Leigh, Sinead O'Connor, John Daly, Darryl Strawberry, David Feherty, Kanye West... The list goes on and on.

And you can tell by that list that some people were luckier in managing it than others. All of their lives have been screwed up in one way or another from it. The thing about bipolar- it doesn't matter how much money you have, it still gets you. People tell me all of the time "Why don't they just take meds?" Well, it took me 15 years of trying things to find the right med combination and every one of the meds had different side effects. And because of the side effects and the stigma, a lot of people quit the meds. Not taking the meds is really common with bipolar- "I'm feeling great, I don't need the meds anymore." And then they crash and burn. And then the cycle repeats.

I do think it is much easier to get in the mental health system if you are a celebrity. It is so hard to get into the first psychiatrist. When I hit rock bottom I was desperate to get help and I'd call doctor after doctor and no one could get me in for months. Some of the time I could never get to talk to a live person. They just tell you that if it is an emergency, go to the ER. Except my nephew went to the ER and he came home with an appointment for a psych in 3 months. So not so helpful, unless they commit you, and then you are stuck with the stigma of inpatient treatment. I've never been inpatient, thank god.

If you are a celebrity I'm sure you get right in. Or you can pay for some treatment house that is better than the hospital psych ward.

But I don't begrudge celebrities that have it. Their life is a mess, too. They just have more money. But they also have more eyes watching them- I'd hate for my struggles to be so public. Every time Kanye West does or says something stupid, I think "oh, honey..."

One thing I don't like when a celebrity has a mild case of a serious health condition but "keeps living their best life." It can make the average person assume that the disease or condition is not really all that bad, when for many - perhaps most - people, it really is.

It would be like me being some poster child for trigeminal neuralgia (if I were famous, lol). I have it, and it sucks, but as cases of it go, mine is not bad at all. Medication treats mine pretty well most of the time, unlike the vast majority of people who have it. But if you see me as the textbook case of this uncommon disease, you think that people complaining about the pain are weenies. Trust me, they are not - before I got treatment and was diagnosed, I had a real taste of it and I understand why some people feel they can't continue their lives with that pain. And I feel like that point often gets missed with some celebrity illnesses where that is the case - people feel like that particular person's experience is the norm or the definition of that disease, and that's not often the case.