This is a hard story to piece together, but I’ll attempt it. We’ve seen Irish singer Sinead O’Connor gradually unravel since she came back into the public eye late last year. At first she posted to her website asking for help finding a man. She eventually found one, married him within a few weeks, claimed to be divorcing him, and then gleefully tweeted that she was back with him and was screwing him. She also shared the detail that she made her new husband, a drug counselor, uncomfortable when she drove around looking for drugs on their wedding night. It was all TMI from Sinead, who admitted prior to her quickie wedding that she’d gone off her bipolar medication.

The latest in this hard-to-watch saga has Sinead overdosing on something and then asking people on Twitter for help finding a psychiatrist. Sinead called it an “overdose,” not a suicide attempt specifically, but that’s what it sounds like. She didn’t tweet about the OD, and just told British outlet The Sun about it. She plead on Twitter for names of psychiatrists in her area who could see her right away and then followed up with the news that she had some appointments scheduled and was feeling better. I’m going to include a couple of different explanations below, because I didn’t get it at first when I read this story on The Sun or when I went through her tweets.

Troubled singer Sinead O Connor overdosed on pills in the days before her plea for psychiatric help via Twitter.com on Wednesday (11Jan12).

The Nothing Compares 2 U singer has long battled mental health issues and took to the internet to tell fans she was heading for meltdown.

She pleaded with followers to give her contact details for health professionals who could provide her with therapy and get her back on her medication.

O’Connor admitted the backlash from her on/off romance to Barry Herridge, who she split from after three weeks of marriage only to reunite days later, had sparked her relapse – and now she’s revealed she took an overdose in the days leading up to the drama.

She tells Britain’s The Sun, “I took an overdose. God obviously wants me around – though I can’t think why.” The suicide bid took place in Los Angeles last Thursday (05Jan12), reports the newspaper.

O’Connor returned to Twitter on Wednesday following her call for help to thank fans for their support and revealed she is now due to receive treatment.

She wrote, “hey… wanna thank all SO much for such great help today. have a number of numbers, contacts, etc now and appointments.” – Contact Music

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In a string of Twitter posts that began on Wednesday morning, Jan. 11, O’Connor told fans that she was “in serious danger” and asked, “Does anyone [sic] know a psychiatrist in Dublin or Wicklow who could urgently see me today please?” She then sent out an e-mail address and asked fans to send her recommendations, writing, “Me don’t wanna leave me kids. Or f*ck up me work. I’m sorry worrying anyone.. is just am sick and ireland shit for finding help cant think of any other way…

On Wednesday, O’Connor alluded to the emotional harm caused by an article that ran in the Irish Independent on Sunday and alleged that Herridge was counseling drug-addicted teenagers as his new bride was searching for drugs.

“The sindo article about them trying to lose barry his job and everyone being shit to him for marrying me has spun me off and I’m ill,” O’Connor wrote.

In the midst of her ongoing personal problems, O’Connor is set to release a new album, How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?, on Feb. 21. A two-night residency at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Forever Cemetery begins on Feb. 20. – Hollywood Reporter

[From Contact Music and The Hollywood Reporter]

It took a lot of courage to ask for help on Twitter, and I’m really relieved that she got some. She’s going through some serious issues with her bipolar disease and thank goodness she’s getting help. She needed help and she reached out and got it. I hope she’s able to get just the medication she needs to manage her disease.

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My mom and I watched Carrie Fisher’s one woman special Wishful Drinking on HBO together. It was so much fun for us, and we could each relate to the Hollywood stories she told. Carrie was funny, self effacing and honest. She went into detail on her crazy family background and upbringing, and somehow she managed to make extreme dysfunction sound hilarious. She was also very honest about the fact that she’s an addict, that she has bipolar disorder and that she’s used electroconvulsive therapy to treat it.

The last we heard of Carrie she was triumphantly showing off her 50 pound weight loss as a new spokesperson for Jenny Craig. She was also sporting an entirely new face, something that she didn’t really mention but was incredibly obvious. She looks good and she hasn’t gone overboard with the Botox and fillers. Well Carrie was on The Today Show this morning promoting her latest memoir, Shockaholic. While smoking an e-cigarette, she extolled the benefits of electroconvulsive therapy, saying that it was a last ditch effort for her, that it’s not painful at this point since they put you to sleep before they do it, and that she highly recommends it. I find her awesome, but it was clear that Ann Curry didn’t get her sense of humor at all.

On if she sees it as her job to break the stigmas over ECT
I want to fracture them. Breaking is just going to far… The stigma on that one is so crazy, though. It’s a Hollywood one.

On why she did ECT
I did it because I’m bipolar. It took me 5 million years to do it. It is the last ditch treatment. They had tried everything else on me. Once I did it, it was like “I wish I’d dont this before.”

On if ECT hurts
They put you to sleep. It’s very different than it used to be. They put you to sleep, there’s no more convulsions. They should call it ET.

On if she recommends it
If they’re that far into it. I don’t recommend like if you have a free afternoon… If you’re depressed, absolutely. They put you to sleep, there’s a medication they give you so there’s no convulsions.

Remember in that movie “What Lies Beneath” when Michelle Pfiefer goes under and Harrison almost kills her? That’s the medication. I had Harrison inject it to me and almost kill me.

Ann: “Oh dear, dear dear. Alright let’s move on.”

Carrie was cracking jokes and all Ann Curry did was act all serious and go “oh,” and “mmm.” After a while, Carrie made more obvious jokes and then Curry gave a couple of forced laughs. It’s like Carrie realized that Ann was so dim she wasn’t going to get it. She’s such a lousy interviewer.

I love that Carrie is so open about what she went through and is talking about what worked for her. They should have had Al Roker interview her instead of Curry. Al would have laughed his ass off.

Here’s Carrie and her mom Debbie Reynolds at the Emmy Awards on 9/11/11. Credit: WENN.com

Catherine Zeta-Jones and her bipolar disorder have taken the cover of this week’s People Magazine. I would imagine that this will likely be one of People’s best-selling issues, not just because big stars “in crisis” always sell, but because Catherine seems to be giving her story exclusively to People, and this cover story includes Catherine’s first interview since the announcement about her disorder. Here’s an excerpt:

When Catherine Zeta-Jones received a recent diagnosis of bipolar II disorder, a mental illness marked by prolonged periods of depression alternating with episodes of mild mania, she didn’t hesitate to step forward with the news.

“This is a disorder that affects millions of people and I am one of them,” the actress, 41, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive statement in this week’s cover story. “If my revelation of having bipolar II has encouraged one person to seek help, then it is worth it. There is no need to suffer silently and there is no shame in seeking help.”

In early April, the Oscar-winning wife of actor Michael Douglas, 66, and mom to son Dylan, 10, and daughter Carys, 8, checked in to Silver Hill Hospital, a mental-health facility in New Canaan, Conn.

Shaken by Douglas’s battle with throat cancer, Zeta-Jones was privately struggling, a friend says. As Douglas recovered, Zeta-Jones didn’t – and with her new movie, the romantic comedy Playing the Field, slated to start shooting in Louisiana, the actress realized she needed help in the face of mounting depression.

“The simple things would just seem overwhelming, like going out to dinner,” says the close friend. “There was just a little piece of her chipped away. It was hard to watch because I knew how hard she was trying.”

[From People]

I agree with everything being said here – there are millions of people with bipolar disorders, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, and people should actively seek treatment. What does interest me, on a celebrity-gossip level, is the how, why and “why now?” of this. Catherine checked herself into a mental health facility a few weeks ago and stayed for less than a week, I believe. I also believe that Catherine wouldn’t have come out and aired her (admittedly private) business if it not for an exclusive scoop that the National Enquirer got last week – only the Enquirer’s story was about Catherine’s problems with drugs and alcohol, which admittedly could have been bipolar-related. While I do think that whatever she’s going through is private, and that she’s taking steps to handle it and be a responsible adult about the situation, I also think that there’s more to the story than what Catherine is handing to People Magazine.

Covers courtesy of CoverAwards, People. Additional pics by WENN.

Yesterday, many of us were stunned at the news that Catherine Zeta Jones is bipolar, and that she was being treated for the disorder at a mental health clinic. I said yesterday that I hadn’t heard a whiff of anything regarding Zeta, but some of you reminded me that I had, in fact, heard a few stories. Nothing too bad, and nothing that I didn’t explain away at the time as simple “Oh, she’s on vacation” or “She must be tired.” But yes, over the past year, we’ve had lots of photos of Catherine chain-smoking and looking pretty drunk and out-of-it, and yes, looking back on some of the stories of her being “tired” and “out of it” were probably bipolar-related. Anyway, People Magazine – who broke the story – has another article up about Zeta and Michael:

Walking the red carpet at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art this week, Michael Douglas was feeling grateful for all the well wishes he’d received from friends and fans as he battled cancer.

“I feel great!” the actor, 66, told PEOPLE at Tuesday night’s event to celebrate Carnegie Hall’s 120th anniversary. “I feel a tremendous amount of support from so many people.”

Absent from the event was his biggest supporter: wife Catherine Zeta-Jones. Hours later, it was revealed that she has quietly sought healing of her own. Her rep says the actress recently checked into a facility for a few days to treat her bipolar II disorder.

The revelation was surprising to many, not least because the Oscar-winning actress and mom-of-two stayed steadfastly positive in public while sticking by Douglas’s side through a grueling six-month battle with cancer.

But behind the scenes, those close to the actress say she felt the strain. Her rep acknowledged the timing of Zeta-Jones, 41, seeking treatment was in part connected to “the stress of the past year.”

Adds a friend, “Catherine has had to deal with Michael’s illness, and that’s been hard.”

A Famous Example

In sharing her experience, the actress put a very public face on a mental illness experienced by millions. The key indicator of bipolar II, experts say, is a cycle of high and low moods, often with episodes of depression.

Zeta-Jones herself has described her bouts with melancholy, telling The Sunday Times in the U.K. that “I’m lucky. … But that’s not to say I don’t get down on myself. I try and stay positive, being negative isn’t good for my personality. I don’t just bring myself down, I bring everyone around me down. It’s like a dark cloud, ‘Uh oh, here we go’, and I have to snap out of it.”

Dr. David Miklowitz, professor of psychiatry at UCLA School of Medicine, says stress “definitely can play a role” in triggering depression or what doctors call hypomania, short periods of mild manias.

“Certain life events, changes, particularly those that affect the sleep cycle, can trigger symptoms,” says Miklowitz. “An event like a loss experience or family conflict can be a cause or a trigger of bipolar episodes.”

Carrie Fisher

Another celebrity knows the feeling. Carrie Fisher, who has laid bare own battles with weight, drugs and alcohol, and also revealed that several years ago she was diagnosed with bipolar II, has described the challenges of the mood swings that come with it.

“A manic phase is not predictable,” Fisher has said, according to USA Today. “The last time, I hacked off my hair, got a tattoo, and wanted to convert to Judaism.”

Perhaps most important, though, is that sufferers can – and many do – manage the disorder effectively, many times with various medications. Now that she’s checked out of treatment, Zeta-Jones can get back to her everyday life – being an actress. She has two new movies coming up, including Playing the Field, currently in production in Louisiana with Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel, and Lay the Favorite.

Adds the friend, Zeta-Jones’s decision to seek treatment was a positive step that will allow her to perform at the best of her ability.

“She went in for a few days because she’s about to start working, and to make sure she’s in top form,” says the friend, “which she is.”

[From People]

Um… Catherine Zeta-Jones is in Playing the Field? With Gerard Butler?!? I’m calling it: Gerard Butler instigated this current breakdown, probably after he and Zeta had some kind of torrid one night stand. My theory is solid. (Except I don’t think they’ve worked together yet, but nevermind!)

A note about the photos on this post and yesterday’s: I swear to God, I’m not trying to be mean, I’m just using some of the most recent photos we have of Catherine. Her eyes take on a different meaning in retrospect.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Shocking news: Catherine Zeta Jones is bipolar. Did anyone else know that? I didn’t. Zeta’s rep just confirmed to People Magazine that CZJ has checked herself into a “mental health facility” to treat her “bipolar II disorder”. Apparently, the stress of the past year – with Michael Douglas’s cancer fight and all – triggered something in Catherine:

Catherine Zeta-Jones, who has been by husband Michael Douglas’s side during his cancer fight, has sought mental health treatment for herself, her rep says.

“After dealing with the stress of the past year, Catherine made the decision to check in to a mental health facility for a brief stay to treat her bipolar II disorder,” the rep says in a statement. “She’s feeling great and looking forward to starting work this week on her two upcoming films.”

Zeta-Jones, 41, spent about five days in the unidentified facility, a friend tells PEOPLE.

“There’s no question it’s been a stressful year,” the friend says. “Catherine has had deal with Michael’s illness and that’s been hard. She went in for a few days because she’s about to start working, and wanted to make sure she’s in top form, which she is.”

Douglas, 66, announced in January he was declared free of cancer after what he called a “wild six-month ride” of chemotherapy and radiation for a tumor on his tongue.

[From People]

From a PR standpoint, this is very well executed. The news is stunning because I’m not aware of even a whiff of this kind of thing around Catherine, and it’s not like she’s had any kind of public meltdown or scandals lately or ever. It seems like a situation where Catherine wasn’t doing very well in private, and she and her family simply took time out to acknowledge the problem and help her get treatment. In other words, everyone is behaving in everybody’s best interests and Catherine is going to get the best help money can buy, and all will be well. Good for them!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

In the current issue of Star Magazine, there’s an article about Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy’s break-up. Although I haven’t seen it confirmed, I think Star Mag might have known about Jim and Jenny’s breakup before they announced it, and Star was prepared to run a story about it, and that’s why Jenny and Jim suddenly announced their split late one afternoon last week. Basically, I’m saying that Star Mag might have nailed this story, to the point where Jim and Jenny were trying to do some early damage control.

Now, at the time, my thoughts were only that the breakup was very sad and that they seemed to be a good match. However, it only took a few days for the rumors to start, and the rumors seemed to revolve around Jim’s mental health, and his battle with depression (or manic depression, say some sources). This is the reason Star Magazine gives for the split. Various unnamed sources tell the magazine, “Jim is not easy to be with. He has a lot of problems with depression.” Jim himself admitted that he was on Prozac in 2004, but also said that “at a certain point” he had to go off his meds and deal with the “peaks and valleys” of life. Star claims that towards the end of their relationship, Jenny was distraught that Jim refused to take his medication, even when those peaks and valleys became “crazy highs and ugly lows.”

A source also told Star: “It was such an emotional roller coaster for her. When he’d get down, he’s just disappear. He would hide out in a hotel or one of his homes, not answering her calls.” It got to be too much for Jenny and she “told friends she needed more support from her man.”

I believe this. I believe Jim Carrey is one dark motherf-cker, a man who probably sinks into very deep, intense depressions. I also believe he’s probably very, very smart, and he thinks he’s too smart to stay medicated, a common problem. Some manic depressives can’t deal with how their medication slows everything down – some miss the crazy highs and lows of their imbalance. I find it very sad, but I totally get why Jenny wanted and needed to get out of there. Ultimately, she has to take care of herself and her son first.

But now even People Magazine is running a piece about Jim’s sanity. They quote him (from his Twitter) as saying “I’m not having a breakdown.” Which could be just a standard-issue People Mag suck-up, only check out how they wrote this piece:

Jim Carrey’s relationship with Jenny McCarthy isn’t the only thing that’s in the past. So too, he says, is a part of himself he’s happy to shed.

“I have freed Truman at long last!,” Carrey wrote in an explosion of post-breakup Tweets, referring to his alter-ego from The Truman Show whose entire life was surreptitiously filmed for a reality show.

“I am grateful for my avatar’s many yrs of dedicated service, but no one has ever won the Tour De France while back peddling. … so I killed him,” he wrote late Sunday night. “I do not plan 2 bow to expectations or to be confined by the fear of losing altitude in the ‘statusphere’! (my word).”

It has freed him to comment on such delicate matters as the Tiger Woods scandal and make a passing reference to Sandra Bullock’s marital crisis.

Acknowledging that “some folks out there are worried that I stay up too late,” he insists, “This is no breakdown! It’s a breakthrough! And if you’ll just loosen these straps, I’ll show you the difference!”

[From People]

I read this and I thought, “Jesus, this guy is off his meds.” Is that the response People Mag wanted to elicit? Out of curiosity, I looked at Jim’s Twitter feed to see all of what he’s been writing since he got publicly slammed for writing that Elin Woods was a “willing participant” in Tiger’s affairs. He’s been tweeting a lot the past few days… I think I’ll call them “manic tweets”. Different from crack tweets or rage tweets. Manic tweets are when your mental illness reveals itself through a flurry of crazed tweets about subjects only you care about. This sh-t is not good.

Actress Glenn Close is speaking out about mental illness on behalf of her nonprofit organization, BringChange2Mind, which aims to decrease the social stigma associated with mental illness. Glenn’s sister Jessie has bipolar disorder but wasn’t diagnosed until she was 27, and Jessie’s son Calen has schizo-affective disorder. While Glenn is famous for having played some crazy characters, she says she never recognized the mental illness in her own family because they didn’t really have the vocabulary to even talk about it.

For more than 25 years, actress Glenn Close has wowed audiences with memorable performances. But her latest role in a public service announcement addressing the stigma of mental illness hits particularly close to home.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about one in four adults in the United States have a diagnosable mental disorder. Close is speaking out for the first time on television about the legacy of mental illness in her own family. Her sister, Jessie Close, has bipolar disorder, and Jessie’s son Calen Pick, 28, has schizo-affective disorder.

“Mental illness is just part of the human condition,” the actress said today on “Good Morning America,” adding that her family hopes that the sisters’ campaign will help foster a dialogue about a condition that we should “talk about as openly as cancer or diabetes.”

Glenn Close, an Emmy, Golden Globe and Tony award winner and Oscar nominee currently starring in the series “Damages,” is also the creator of a nonprofit organization called BringChange2Mind, which she founded to raise awareness about mental illness and to provide support and information to the mentally ill and their families.

[From ABC News]

The interview with George Stephanopoulos is really interesting, and you can watch it in its entirety on ABC’s website. It’s so touching to watch Glenn interact with Jessie and see the compassion and empathy she has for her sister, instead of the judgment and ridicule people with mental illness often face. They also show the PSA, which has Glenn and Jessie wearing shirts that say “Sister” and “Bipolar” in the middle of Grand Central Station, along with other people and their family members wearing shirts that say the name of their illness. It helps us see their humanity, and remind us that they’re regular people deserving of respect, just like everyone else.

Stephanopoulos also talks a bit about the link between bipolar disorder (and mental illness in general) and creativity. Jessie, who’s a writer, admitted she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to work and would lose that part of herself, and her son felt the same. But she said she’s working better than ever now, and they showed an amazing self-portrait that Calen had recently completed.

It’s wonderful that Glenn and Jessie have joined forces on this, and hopefully they’ll bring some much needed attention to the truly important issues affecting not just those with mental illness but their families as well.

Here’s Glenn at the Emmys on September 20th. Images thanks to WENN.com .

Here’s a strange story for you, courtesy of the folks at Radar. They like to get a lot of video interviews, which is nice. The thing is that, with the exception of some Z-list stars (remember their Octomom series?) they generally only get hooked up with the friends-of-friends of a celebrity. Or, best case scenario, the parents of friends of a celebrity. They’re almost always a few degrees removed. It’s still interesting to hear what they have to say, but so much is repeated “telephone-game” style that you have to wonder how accurate it is.

In this case, we’ve got Marci Santoro. What, haven’t heard of her? Strange. Well remember that babysitter Jon Gosselin hooked up with this summer, Stephanie Santoro? Marci is Stephanie’s mom. And for some reason, she’s passing on her exclusive knowledge of Jon Gosselin’s mental health – or lack thereof. Why we’re hearing about it now and why Marci is sharing at all is beyond me, aside from the two obvious answers: money and attention. She’s not going to get much of either, but here goes.

Marci claims that Jon was suicidally depressed. Not from her own first-hand knowledge but because she overheard a conversation between Stephanie and Jon in which he threatened to kill himself. Stephanie then relayed the whole thing to her mom, who was kind enough to relay it all to Radar.

Jon Gosselin may look calm and collected in photographs, but behind closed doors, the father-of-8 is a pressure cooker waiting to boil over says the mother of his babysitter and former lover, Stephanie Santoro.

In a shocking exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com, Marci Santoro confirmed her daughter’s sexual relationship with Jon and said Gosselin threatened to kill himself in a conversation with Stephanie.

“He said that everybody would be better off without him and that his children would be better off if he wasn’t around anymore,” Marci told RadarOnline.com. “He said to her, ‘I’m just going to kill myself, I’m just going to end it all.’”

Frightening words from Jon, who is weeks away from finalizing his divorce with wife Kate Gosselin. But the 32-year-old has been displaying erratic behavior at times, venting his rage at wife Kate on national TV and telling the world he “despises” her and dating a string of younger women and then denying most of the relationships.

Despite Jon’s public loyalty to current girlfriend Hailey Glassman, 22, other women (remember Kate Major?) have stepped out claiming they too dated Jon during his separation from his wife. And now Santoro confirms to RadarOnline.com that Stephanie also had a sexual relationship with Jon, which began right after he returned from France with Hailey.

“She told me that besides watching the children, they also started a relationship, and of course being a mother my first question was, ‘are you sleeping with him, did you have sex?’ and she said, ‘yeah.’” According to Santoro, Stephanie quit her jobs to babysit the Gosselin children in July.

[From Radar]

I’m not quite sure what to make of this. My initial impression from the phrasing of Jon’s statement about killing himself was that it seemed more an empty statement of self pity. There are the cries for help that should be taken very, very seriously. And there are the things that are just tossed out there. If there’s any truth to this story, that doesn’t mean that’s how Jon actually phrased it. Like I said, it’s being passed on through a long chain. And Marci is obviously putting her own inflection into it.

My gut instinct is it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have Jon’s mental health checked out. Not because of this supposed incident – it’s just too vague and the fact that anyone would pass this on if it were true makes me question the accuracy of the source more than if they made it up. But Radar actually made some really good points about Jon’s bizarre behavior. And more than anything, the dramatic change in his personality. Most people think it’s an early midlife crisis, but sometimes major mental illnesses can be shockingly overlooked. It couldn’t hurt to make sure he’s okay.

You can watch the video of the interview here. And stop dating girls with mustache moms Jon. It never leads to anything good.

Here’s Jon Gosselin shopping at Banana Republic in SoHo yesterday with a known paparazzi acting as his bodyguard. Oddly enough the burly snapper is wearing a ‘Police’ t-shirt. Images thanks to BauerGriffinOnline.

VH1 sure is starting a new trend with reality therapy television. They’ve had “Celebrity Rehab” with Dr. Drew Pinsky. Next they’re doing a celebrity sex addiction show, also with Dr. Drew. And I’ve got to say that while I loudly proclaim my disdain for reality television, I really find these shows interesting – probably because they have some unexpected content. And I really prefer the “I’m peeping in on your therapy session” kind of voyeurism to the “I’m watching you eat shell bugs” type.

So VH1 is sticking with a good thing and creating another reality show based on mental health. However this time it won’t be based on celebrities – it’ll be about real people dealing with obsessive compulsive disorder.

VH1 has picked up a new unscripted series that centers on people battling obsessive compulsive disorder. 3 Ball Prods. is behind the still-untitled “OCD Project,” which will follow a group of participants suffering from severe forms of the disease. They’ll live together for several weeks in a treatment facility and undergo both individual and group treatment.

Jeff Olde, VH1′s senior VP of programming and production, noted that OCD has become a part of pop culture, thanks to various viral Internet videos as well as entertainment projects such as USA’s “Monk.”

“I feel our viewers will also see something of themselves in these patients as I think everyone has a little bit of OCD, making it surprisingly relatable,” he said. “We want to open people’s eyes and hearts to a very real side of this disorder that can often ruin careers and relationships. … Our goal is to bring some real understanding to this disease.”

VH1 said the show falls into the same category of some of the channel’s other rehabilitation series, including “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew” and “Sex Rehab With Dr. Drew.” Producer 3 Ball, which just signed with CAA, is also familiar to the TV help genre: The company produces “The Biggest Loser” for NBC and was also behind “Breaking Bonaduce.”

“3 Ball’s brand has always been about transformation,” said 3 Ball exec producer JD Roth. ” ‘The OCD Project’ will be another example where regular, everyday people afflicted with severe symptoms take their lives back from an out-of-control situation and inspire viewers to do the same.”

[From Variety]

I really think that quote about how “everyone has a little bit of OCD” is very true. We’ve all got our “things,” it’s just a matter of how many and what type. While a lot of people think OCD and think obsessive cleanliness/fear of germs, someone with OCD can just as easily be extremely messy. I lived with a guy who had it and one of his compulsions was saving absolutely everything that could ever possibly be important to him – and that could very easily mean every gum wrapper. I’m a compulsive neat-freak who loves nothing more than a good seven bags piled up in front of the garbage can. It didn’t last.

But it makes sense that there are little bits of OCD we can all relate to. I’ve gotten some increasingly big germ issues thanks to a crappy immune system and nearly dying from pneumonia last winter. All you had to do was look at me and I’d catch whatever you had, for twice as long and twice as bad. My roommate must have everything in parallel lines. The other one must flush the toilet 3 times, no matter what. Sometimes you grow out of these things, and other times you grow into them. Now that I’m running over some in my head, I’m realizing how long this list is getting. This show will be great. If nothing else, it’ll make a lot of us super-aware and paranoid. Sounds like some good relaxing television.

This picture was titled “Germs are everywhere!!!! Thanks.

File this one under “DUH!” Dr. Drew Pinsky, star of such exploitation-style reality shows as “Celebrity Rehab” and “Sober House,” has written a new book titled “The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism is Seducing America.” He claims his research shows that celebrities become famous to feed their narcissism, not the other way around. His research team gave hundreds of celebrities and non-famous people the same narcissism test and found that celebs scored significantly higher.

Celebrities’ bad behavior is rooted in mental illness, according to “Dr. Drew” Pinsky, who is best known as the host of Celebrity Rehab and Loveline — a nationally syndicated radio show that invites listeners to call in with questions about sex and drugs.

In his latest book, The Mirror Effect (on bookstore shelves Tuesday), he spells out a theory that stars are predisposed to narcissistic personality disorder long before they become famous. Their dysfunctional behavior is rewarded by Hollywood and portrayed as normal by the press.

“As reporting on celebrity behavior becomes even more ruthless and mean-spirited, I am struck by this disconnect between how a celebrity’s behavior is portrayed in the media, and the very real problems that underlie their actions,” wrote Pinsky.

He argues that the media fails to acknowledge that celebrities are mentally ill when holding them up as role models, so everyday people have begun to emulate their unhealthy behavior.

In 2006, Pinsky and his co-author Mark Young published the first systematic study of celebrity psychology in the Journal of Research in Personality. The new book explains that research and how it fits into the larger context of our culture, which they argue has been soiled by shameless producers, agents and paparazzi.
The first three chapters read like a history textbook, recapping famous celebrity mishaps and an era when those unfortunate episodes were carefully hidden from the public. It gives readers a glimpse of just how conservative Pinsky really is. He seems to prefer the good old days when movie studios were able to keep Rock Hudson in the closet.

The celebrity doctor is not a fan of MySpace or Facebook either, because they allow people to seek attention by acting out like celebrities — posting provocative pictures and personal stories about irresponsible behavior.

“Without appropriate monitoring, these social networking platforms are subject to abuse by those who are most vulnerable to the endless feedback loop they create,” wrote Pinsky. “This is known as an urge/compulsion/reinforcement cycle, and it’s very similar to what happens to those who crave drugs or other addictive substances.”

[From Wired]

Well, if celebs are clinically defined as narcissists, doesn’t Dr. Drew himself fall into that category?I’d be curious to see how he scored on this test. I really do question his abilities. If he’s so great at his job, why are all these people on his reality shows always relapsing? I can’t think of a single celeb he’s tried to “help” who has been able to stay sober. He seems far more interested in creating good drama for TV than actually helping any of these people. Maybe he should take his own advice. It’s interesting that he believes that most celebs become famous because of a deficiency in their personality, but I think with most of them, that’s pretty obvious. Nothing to write a book over.

Dr. Drew attends Elton John’s Oscar Party in Feb. 2008. Photo credits:WENN.