Mariah Carey Reveals She's Bipolar

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Mariah Carey Reveals She’s Bipolar

Mariah Carey is feeling free enough to finally tell fans about a secret mental illness battle. The legendary songstress is covering PEOPLE and revealing her bipolar disorder diagnosis.

According to MiMi she was diagnosed waaaaay back in 2001 after she was hospitalized for a physical and mental breakdown but “didn’t want to believe it.”

“Until recently I lived in denial and isolation and in constant fear someone would expose me,” she says. “It was too heavy a burden to carry and I simply couldn’t do that anymore. I sought and received treatment, I put positive people around me and I got back to doing what I love — writing songs and making music.”

Mariah says’s she’s now in therapy and taking medication for bipolar II disorder, which involves periods of depression as well as hypomania which can cause irritability, sleeplessness, and hyperactivity.

“For a long time I thought I had a severe sleep disorder,” Mimi told PEOPLE. “But it wasn’t normal insomnia and I wasn’t lying awake counting sheep. I was working and working and working … I was irritable and in constant fear of letting people down. It turns out that I was experiencing a form of mania. Eventually I would just hit a wall. I guess my depressive episodes were characterized by having very low energy. I would feel so lonely and sad — even guilty that I wasn’t doing what I needed to be doing for my career.”

Mariah also added that she refuses to let her disorder “control her” and she’s currently working on a new album.

Very brave of Mariah to speak on mental illness, she could have kept this a secret from her Lambs forever.