After years of battling with bipolar, singer Mariah Carey has opened up for the first time about her struggles with the disorder.
"Until recently I lived in denial and isolation and in constant fear someone would expose me," she told PEOPLE Magazine.
"It was too heavy a burden to carry and I simply couldn't do that anymore."
Although she was first diagnosed in 2001, she says she has only recently sought treatment, and is turning to her close friends and passion for music for support.
She's also undergoing therapy and taking medication.
"For a long time I thought I had a severe sleep disorder," Carey told PEOPLE.
"I was irritable and in constant fear of letting people down. It turns out that I was experiencing a form of mania."
In July 2001 Carey was hospitalised which she said was the result of "extreme exhaustion" and a "physical and emotional breakdown".
She spent two weeks in a Connecticut hospital and was absent from the public eye for months after her release.
It is not clear if this is when she was diagnosed.
Newshub.
