Is Charlie Sheen really Bipolar?

Since the beginning of March, actor and star of the now canned sitcom Two and a Half Men Charlie Sheen has been going through a bit of a breakdown...which the media has been capturing every second of it.

Many have seem to beleive that the reason for Sheen's behavior is Bipolar Disorder which Sheen's action matches the symptoms to. Bipolar Disorder is characterized by dramatic and often violent mood swings between great joy and depression. In the manic state of depression the person will feel like they have boundless energy and with it suffer chronic insomnia, engage in wild spending, sex, and/or drug use and also suffer delusions of granadeur or paranoia.

Sheen has shown these characteristics fitting Bipolar Disorder and has also been analyzed by psychiatrists, but has also freely admitted to taking sheer amounts of crack and cocaine which can lead to bipolar symptoms.

"Cocaine produces a heightened state of what looks like mania -- a hyper-manic state -- and it also produces a crash," explains Fischoff, a senior editor at the Journal of Media Psychology (http://www.popeater.com/2011/03/02/is-charlie-sheen-bipolar-experts/).

Sheen also doesn't admit to being bipolar himself and takes a shot at mental illness:

"Wow! What does that mean?" he says. "Wow. And then what? What's the cure? Medicine? Make me like them? Not gonna happen. I'm bi-winning. I win here, and I win there. Now what? If I'm bipolar, aren't there moments where a guy, like, crashes, like, in the corner, like, 'Oh my God, it's all my mom's fault'? Shut up. Shut up! Stop! Move forward."
-Charlie Sheen (http://www.popeater.com/2011/03/02/is-charlie-sheen-bipolar-experts/)

There's another interesting article on The Philly Post by a Liz Spikol (http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2011/03/08/so-charlie-sheens-bipolar-eh/)
Judging by her article it seems Spikol herself is bipolar and is less than thrilled at Charlie Sheen making a bad name for those with bipolar disorder. In Spikol's reasoning:

"the media—from England to Edmonton—went with the theory of mental illness: How could he be such an arrogant, egomaniac otherwise?"

Spikol goes on to point out none of Sheen's ex-wives or girlfriends have mentioned mental illness before and explaines how damaging it is using bipolar or any mental illness to use as an automatic explanation for behavior like Sheen's is damaging to the illness and those who actually do suffer from it; again as mentioned before the stigma the mentally ill endure in real life.

In another interesting article, which isn't so much about mental illness stigma, but how society views gender roles is "Comic Masculinity: The Three Faces of Charlie Sheen" by Sady Doyle on GlobalComment.com(http://globalcomment.com/2011/comic-masculinity-charlie-shee/)

In this article Doyle details the different sides of Sheen's behavior as seen by the media from being a comedian, a tragedy, and lastly a misogynist. The Misogynist Sheen has apparently been around before the 'Bipolar Breakdown' with cries of domestic abuse during Two and a Half Men; It also seems Sheen was punished more for bad mouthing Chuck Lorre the show's creator than when Sheen shot his ex-fiances Kelly Preston. Along with Preston there are numerous starlets and sex-workers Sheen has also terrorized with his star power backing him up.

Doyle concludes her article with comparing and contrasting Sheen's celebrity meltdown with those of Brittney Spears and Lindsey Lohan, which can be summed up in this paragraph:

"But it’s Sheen the misogynist who holds the key to the puzzle. Holmes points out that self-destructive celebrities are nothing new; it’s just that they’re normally treated differently. “Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears are endlessly derided for their extracurricular meltdowns and lack of professionalism,” she writes. It’s true: Shaming is normally a major part of the sport of celebrity crash-gawking. All Miley Cyrus had to do was take an (apparently legal) bong hit and hold onto a pole during a musical performance, and we regularly treat her as if she’d released several dozen sex tapes filmed atop a pile of crack rocks. Sheen, by contrast, has displayed far more troubling behavior, and become a hero. This actually makes sense: Lohan and Spears are breaking all the rules of femininity. But as Sheen has gotten more out of control, his behavior has become more stereotypically masculine."

What it means to be mentally ill in the media

"Since so many Americans obtain their view of the world through movies, television, and the news media, however, the perpetuation of this and other exaggerated stereotypes of mentally ill people reinforces culturewide stigmatization" - Aaron Levin, "Violence and Mentall Illness: Media Keeps Myths Alive" (A Psychiatryonline.org Article)

As covered before the mentally ill's portrayl in media is often inaccurate and damaging, thus leading to the group to be stigmatized. Of course it is not just the News over publicizing certain crimes, but in the public's many forms of entertainment.

There is an informative article on pn.psychiatryonline.org called "Violence and Mental Illness: Media Keep Myths Alive" by Aaron Levin (http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/36/9/10.full)

I nthe article, Levin interviews Otto Wahl, Ph.D who is a professor of psychology at George Mason University  in Virginia. According to Wahl, mental illness is actually a poor indicator for violence ranking after othe factors such as: youth, male, history of violence, or poverty. With the exceptions of those with substance abuse issues, people with mental illnesses violent acts just as much as those without any disorder. Also, 80 to 90 percent of menatlly ill people never commit a crime.

So why do some people think of crazed axe murders wearing hockey masks when this subject is mentioned? Of course, the media.

News satations have been shown to have a bias against the mentally ill today and in the past. Most of the news consists of stories about crimes being commited and crimes where the perpetrator is menatlly ill are usually the lead story, on the front page, and even have the most coverege on the case, trial, and sentencing.

Along with news coverage there are the problems with the entertainment media as well. According to Levin:

"In popular fiction, “mental cases” commit violent crimes. On TV, they are violent and murderous—both in drama and comedy shows. Slasher movies give birth to multiple sequels. Batman’s foes, the Joker and the Penguin, are “insane.” Even children’s literature is rife with mentally ill villains. In the Harry Potter books, one character is termed “mad” and hence “a danger to anyone who crosses him.”

The such movies like the Halloween franchise no doubt helped fuel the fear towards mentally ill. In various TV shows if someone is mentally ill besides or instead of being a danger, they will sometimes be seen as sources of comedic reliefs. And along with being one of the most iconic and oldest of superheroes, Batman's adversaries tend to be the most iconic and oldest of supervillians, who happen to be mostly insane or diturbed in one way (The Joker much, much ,much more than The Penguin).

Besides ignorance, there are also profits that keep these stereotypes alive in people's minds. Producers admit to wanting action and violence because these genres are cheap to produce and don't require any translation in an export market. Also, there usually isn't much time in some TV shows to develop a character, so mental illness then becomes a convienent steretype and plot device for a story.

Media stigmatization has broader political significance. When public debates arise over issues like involuntary commitment or legal definitions that equal mental illness with criminal behavior.

Of course, the mentally ill are aware of these stereotypes and the problems they make for them. With the stigmatization, isolation and anger there is also the fear of getting help because of these reactions and/or keeping their conditions secret from others.

However, there is hope as there have been more and more media with better portrayls those with mental illness. Such as Ron Howard's film about Nobel Prize winning Mathematician John Nash who also had schizophrenia and  "The Caveman's Valentine" starring Samuel L. Jackson.