Charlie Sheen reminds me of myself…

I don’t know what’s up with Charlie Sheen, but I do know that something just isn’t quite right.

And I also know what it’s like to live inside a chaotic, invincible mind and feel like no one understands just how powerful you REALLY are, or gets that YOU ARE SPECIAL, different from everyone else. A mind that convinces you that you REALLY ARE EXTRAORDINARY  because you don’t need to sleep like everyone else, you don’t need to eat, and you really are ABOVE the so called limits of human behaviour. I understand that space which feels oh-so-real but to everyone else is oh-so-out-there.

And, dear reader, this is only my opinion, but I do think all the media hype about his behaviour is actually quite cruel.

If all the publicity he’s getting was being used to highlight his need for help, and possibly to raise society’s consciousness about mental health and well-being, that would perhaps be useful.

But yet, as I watched my Twitter stream last night while he was being interviewed by Piers Morgan, I realized that the media is not really making a positive impression on it’s consumers.

My feed was full of taunts, jokes and sneers about Charlie’s oddity.  Good old fashioned “making fun” of him.

I know why that is, though, and I don’t fault anyone for their reaction to what they were seeing. Those kinds of comments come from ignorance and fear. Fear of the dark possibilities of the human mind.

The same kind of darkness that invited anarchy into my life in my late 20s/early 30s.

The one that brought upon an unexpected mania which fueled an exercise addiction and anorexia.

And that made it near impossible for me to bathe. The dark and peculiar thoughts that made me believe that my bizarre hair and childish way of dressing were ‘trend setting’.

The twisted thoughts which coaxed me to engage in acts physical self harm and made me believe that I was above truth telling and was actually entitled to be a shop-lifter. Like I was better than everyone, so I deserved not to pay for things.

Bipolar Disorder.

It can happen to anyone. It could happen to you.

More than media hype and criticism, Charlie Sheen needs help. It’s almost criminal to gawk and point fingers at someone who is so clearly in need of compassion and support, not judgment.

Read here for a post that inspired me to write this post.

(by no means am I playing armchair psychiatrist here, I’m just simply relating my experience to what I saw last night. )