This is what severe Manic Depressive Illness looks like...

[jasmin]

Where is his family in all this mess? Maybe he is trying to self medicate. I don't proclaim to have any answers just one question. Where is his family?

[lil_michelle]

Originally Posted by jasmin

Where is his family in all this mess?

EXACTLY... he is surrounded by people that are enjoying His money and fame too much to do the right thing. It's startling! It's like seeing a guy about to jump off a bridge and the people around him telling him how friggin brilliant the idea is! So sad.

[Ansley]

Originally Posted by jasmin

Where is his family?

There isn't much family members can do to help an alcoholic/addict. Charlie needs to hit 'his' rock bottom before he will seek help.

[London Rayne]

We don't know how much pain he may have caused them already. Could very well be a case of "tough love" and making him grow up.

[WTF]

Originally Posted by Ansley

There isn't much family members can do to help an alcoholic/addict. Charlie needs to hit 'his' rock bottom before he will seek help.

Exactly right.

Folks, Charlie is a grown ass man. His rock bottom may be death, if not and he comes outta this we will cheer him again.

Originally Posted by jasmin

Where is his family in all this mess? Maybe he is trying to self medicate. I don't proclaim to have any answers just one question. Where is his family?

They have been dealing with him for decades. You can not wave no spooky dust over a family member and cure the them.

Watch A&E "Intervention", it will open your eyes on just how hard this Diease is. It is a disease, he did not choose to have it, he may appear to choose not to try and fix it but that is the disease talking.

[Bebe Le Strange]

Originally Posted by WTF

Exactly right.

Folks, Charlie is a grown ass man. His rock bottom may be death, if not and he comes outta this we will cheer him again.



They have been dealing with him for decades. You can not wave no spooky dust over a family member and cure the them.

Watch A&E "Intervention", it will open your eyes on just how hard this Diease is. It is a disease, he did not choose to have it, he may appear to choose not to try and fix it but that is the disease talking.

OMG that "intervention" is really an eye opener! I agree on that..

[Guest060513]

My goodness... If that is classic Manic Depressive that is very enlightening! I recognize very much of an ex of mine in that... scary. No matter how good his life he struggles with inner demons & it has always made me feel helpless to do much to ease his mental & emotional extremes. I love him always but wow sometimes it was hard to handle. I never saw any of these videos before, a bit behind in the Sheenomenon I guess... (hey thats snazzy, I like it! Remember you heard it here first, lol)

[ClairJordan]

This is a tragedy in motion. Classic tale of too much too soon, and never finding a balance. As we know, a lot of creative, brilliant people are bipolar. I have taken a couple of trips to the moon, Alice, myself (not to say I am brilliant). You have to learn how to read the road signs and control the swings. If I feel myself getting manic, I have learned to SLOW DOWN, make sure I eat and sleep and just take some time out of time. Sometimes that can be hard to do, esp in NYC. If I don't do that, I will stop eating and sleeping and lose all balance. I can't afford to do that.
I don't get depressed, just get going too fast. My cousin, who I am very close to, has it really bad and she swings both high and low. They are constantly adjusting her medication. It controls her life, basically. The problem with the highs are you feel like a friggin Superstar, and have so much energy that people swarm to you. The ideas come fast and furious. It's almost a vibratory thing. Raising the vibration. But it is what it is. It's your brain chemistry and you need to learn how to deal with it. Exercise, natural herb, meditation, slowing down.
This guy hasn't slowed down for 30 years. And now look. Poor baby!!

Did you know Claire Booth Luce wrote the incredibly popular play The Women in 3 days, during a manic phase? That's gettin' it done!!

[ClairJordan]

This is a tragedy in motion. A classic tale of too much, too soon. Academy Award at 20, thinks he's 18 feet tall and bullet-proof; like the Kennedy's.
Many creative, brilliant people are bi-polar. It's where a lot of the energy comes from. I think it's about figuring out how to find blanace, and not go over the edge. Rock it, don't tilt it. Charlie boy is tilting waaaaaaaaaayy over the edge! And he's a dad times a few.
America loves to see their gods fall from Olympus. Hope the Goddess catches ya, CS.
www.livethesheendream.com
He is hilarious on a good day.

[Guest083011]

FWIW my dad was M-D and also an alcoholic. They would not treat one without the other being cured. It made it very difficult to get him "normal." Alas in his final days we believe he took his life. This was 35 years ago. We have healed and moved on. He was very talented as a writer but very troubled too.

[Guest050715-1]

Originally Posted by SR Only

FWIW my dad was M-D and also an alcoholic. They would not treat one without the other being cured. It made it very difficult to get him "normal." Alas in his final days we believe he took his life. This was 35 years ago. We have healed and moved on. He was very talented as a writer but very troubled too.

I’m sorry to hear that. It’s always sad to hear when parents create demons for their children to live with. Trust me; I know.

I have known a few people that are bipolar. From what I can tell, people that suffer from manic / depression would be more apt to seek medical treatment for the disease if there were not people in their lives that are addicted to the drama and mood swings. Everyone - to a person - that I've known that is bipolar has these people in their lives.

I’m co-dependent by nature; I’m just a fixer of problems naturally. For me the mood swings and manic states are just too difficult for me to deal with. I feel bad. I know I can help them or at least listen to them, but the mania manifests itself in extreme anger (At least that’s been my experience.), and I find that too difficult to deal with. I’m sure that’s kind of how Charlie Sheen’s family feels.

I couldn’t watch the video for more than a minute or two. I feel bad for him even so he’s brought a lot of this on himself.

[NinaBrooke]

Originally Posted by Bebe Le Strange

If you do or don't know about the illness, He has all the hallmark symptoms of it, and in these videos he is in an extreme full blown "Manic State".

By the way, this manic behavior can mimic the symptoms of drug use.

This isn't just about the drugs this is about an illness gone long untreated.

I hope he gets help, gets on the right medications and maybe if he survives this he can speak out on the illness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFbd4mOruQA

This is what is called a artificial psychosis (manic illness) because of drug induced. I assume the guy is on coke. That . the sudden rush of ups and downs comes close to manic depressive illness. The chemistry in the brain gets adapted to these ups and downs and it takes years to balance it again.

[NinaBrooke]

Originally Posted by SR Only

FWIW my dad was M-D and also an alcoholic. They would not treat one without the other being cured. It made it very difficult to get him "normal." Alas in his final days we believe he took his life. This was 35 years ago. We have healed and moved on. He was very talented as a writer but very troubled too.

I am so sorry to hear that. Nowadays there is really good medications out there, although bipolar disorder maintains to be difficult in treatment, majorly because the compliance of the client is not there. When they feel better they set of medication. One of my best girlfriends is bipolar too. Its hard to help her. Now after she had a severe accident she is finally more compliant. But still tough.

[davec.0121]

I tend to agree with Dallas Rayne - whilst Sheen may some bipolar tendencies, his behavior is more likely due to ingestion of enormous amounts of alcohol and various drugs over many years, combined with a large number of enablers telling him that he is a god. In fact, Sheen's behavior is much more like that of a complete and utter narcissist, compounded by severe substance abuse, than a bipolar. Attributing his behavior to manic-depression is yet another way to let him off the hook for his own actions.

The only mental disorder worse than bipolar is schezophrenia. Many people with severe bipolar disease begin to manifest symptoms when they're in their teens, or even before (unlike Sheen). While the manic episodes can be marked by bursts of creativity and high energy, very frequently they degenerate into blind, raging anger and very high levels of paranoia. It is during the manic episodes that bipolars are most likely to kill themselves, suicide being the leading cause of death amongst severe manic-depressives.

During the depressive episodes, which Sheen doesn't appear to manifest, the victims can be so depressed as to be non-functional. As one doctor said, they couldn't get out of bed if the house was on fire. For them life is utter and total blackness. Or as one person told me: to her, black would be an big improvement over what she felt.

Drugs, often originally used for epilepsy, can help, and anti-depressants, 'mood levelers' and anti-psychotics are often used together, depending on whether the person is in a manic or a depressive state. However, many of the drugs have very severe side effects, as mentioned in other posts. Unfortunately, in many severe cases, a drug that initially works well can lose its effectiveness after a time, as if the brain is re-wiring itself to overcome the effect. And, of course, the drugs when working so suppress the personality (no highs, no lows, no feelings) that many bipolars won't take them.

So, Sheen doesn't really fit the pattern for a full-blown bipolar personality. That's too facile an explanation for his behavior. Considering what 20 years of severe drug and alcohol abuse will do to your brain, that appears to be a more likely explanation.

[Schrödinger's cat]

Originally Posted by Ansley

There isn't much family members can do to help an alcoholic/addict. Charlie needs to hit 'his' rock bottom before he will seek help.

I also agree with this.

Not that we shouldn't try...it's just a fine line between doing something that will really help and being an enabler (or doing something that will make it worse). Damn fine line sometimes. I have a number of friends with Bipolar Disorder and it can be a devastating disease. For what it is worth - the meds - the mood stabilizers (such as valproic acid) in combination with lithium can be quite successful in treating the disorder - particularly the acute manic episodes. Though about 30% of people diagnosed with the disorder do not respond to any available treatments... Lithium has gotten a fairly bad rap - which is too bad because used appropriately it can work quite successfully. But as others have mentioned - there are pretty severe side-effects and blood levels have to be monitored and patient compliance suffers from this. One of my friends constantly complains about the side-effects and also that she "likes being manic"...

In any event, I'm not one for too much speculation - something is up with Charlie and best course of action is - I believe - to get him out of our attention. This reminds me too much of watching journalist film "bad" things and not doing anything to help (not meaning to pick on journalist - I'm sure you get the point).

Mostly I wanted to say - if you are interested in Bipolar Disorder, there is an excellent book by Kay Jamison "An Unquiet Mind" on the topic. She has the somewhat unique perspective of having Bipolar Disorder and having a PhD to study it. Very good read to boot.

And if you are interested, "Darkness Visible" by William Styron (the author of "Sophia's Choice") is a good book about depression - it is Stryon's story of his own struggle with severe depression.

Y'all take care.

Schrodinger's Cat