Why Carrie Fisher Was The Mental health advocate That The World Needed
"I am mentally ill . . .
I am not ashamed of
that"
Leia was a character that I held close to my heart throughout my childhood as a die hard Star Wars fanatic. But that wasn’t the Carrie Fisher that I will miss most in my adult life. I’ll miss the Carrie fisher who reached out and told so many, myself included that Mental Illness is nothing to be ashamed about.
I recall watching ‘The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive’ years after its 2006 release after stumbling upon some interviews with Fisher following her death. The basis of the show was that Steven Fry had visited Fisher during a manic episode. This wasn’t the fabricated, nostalgic idea of Carrie Fisher that I had held so close to my heart as a child. This was the real her. And I couldn’t help but admire how brave she must have been to open her doors to the world whilst at her most vulnerable. I may not have recognized Princess Leia as the untouchable heroine whom I had idolized for most of my childhood but I recognized the emotions, the feelings, the mania and in some strange distorted way, felt closer to my childhood hero than I ever had before.
2016.