Stephen Fry is a revered and respected actor, writer and wit. Greatly intelligent, he has starred in the hugely successful and hilarious comedy Fry & Laurie, Kingdom, and a string of documentaries. He has authored a number of books, including the autobiographical works The Fry Chronicles and Moab Is My Washpot which discuss his manic depression.
Stephen Fry: my long battle with manic depression
Eleven years after he walked out of the starring role in a West End theatre production and fled the country, Stephen Fry has spoken of his battle with manic depression for a new BBC2 show he hopes will break the taboos surrounding mental health.
In The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive, the comedian, actor and author talks of his struggle with bipolar disorder and interviews others who have the condition.
"Eleven years ago in the early hours of the morning I came down from my flat in central London," he says, recalling the period immediately after he walked out on the play Cell Mates. "I went into my garage, sealed the door with a duvet I'd brought and got into my car. I sat there for at least, I think, two hours in the car, my hands on the ignition key. It was, you know, a suicide attempt, not a cry for help".
Instead he fled to Europe, saying he "really believed" he would never return to England.
"I drove to the south coast and took a ferry to Europe. I just knew I couldn't be at home. I really believed I would never come back to England. I couldn't meet the gaze of anyone I knew".
After later returning secretly to evade the press furore about his whereabouts, he was diagnosed as bipolar.
"I'd never heard the word before, but for the first time, at the age of 37, I had a diagnosis that explains the massive highs and miserable lows I've lived with all my life," he says.
"There's no doubt that I do have extremes of mood that are greater than just about anybody else I know. The psychiatrist in the hospital recommended I take a long break. I came here to America and for months I saw a therapist and walked up and down this beach. My mind was full of questions. Am I now mad? How have I got this illness, could it have been prevented, can I be cured of it? Since then, I have discovered just how serious it is to have bipolarity, or manic depression as it's also called. Four million others in the UK have it and many of them end up killing themselves."
On returning to his old school, he said: "In hindsight my symptoms really surfaced here, but the problem was, to almost everyone, they just looked like bad behaviour. I was nearly expelled from prep school, I was nearly expelled from here."
He says: "When I was about 17 ... going around London on two stolen credit cards, it was a sort of fantastic reinvention of myself, an attempt to. I bought ridiculous suits with stiff collars and silk ties from the 1920s, and would go to the Savoy and Ritz and drink cocktails."
Fry re-examines his life in the light of his diagnosis, speaking to his former schoolmaster and discussing the first time he tried to kill himself, at 17.
He also speaks to others in the public eye who have battled the condition, including the comedian Tony Slattery and the Hollywood actors Richard Dreyfuss and Carrie Fisher.
Slattery spoke of his own breakdown: "I rented a huge warehouse by the river Thames. I just stayed in there on my own, didn't open the mail or answer the phone for months and months and months. I was just in a pool of despair and mania".
Unveiling BBC2's autumn season, its controller, Roly Keating, said Fry, who had approached the broadcaster with the idea for the programme, "talks about his own experiences with incredible candour and bravery. It is a totally misunderstood condition which a lot of people don't like to talk about because of the taboo around mental health", he added. "He does it with humour and empathy and proves he is also a very good listener."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2006/jul/21/mentalhealth.broadcasting
Owen Gibson, media correspondent The Guardian, Friday 21 July 2006 07.16 BST
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