{"id":4913,"date":"2011-04-27T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/?p=4913"},"modified":"2011-04-27T10:50:12","modified_gmt":"2011-04-27T14:50:12","slug":"4913","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/4913.html","title":{"rendered":"People’s Profile of Catherine Zeta Jones and Bipolar II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I must admit, when I picked up the copy of People magazine<\/a> with Catherine Zeta Jones<\/a> on the cover, I was nervous to read what was between the covers. Because I don\u2019t trust Hollywood\u2019s coverage of mood disorders.<\/a> I mean, they don\u2019t have a great track record. There are exceptions: Brooke Shields comes to mind. But far too often we read about the whackjob movie star who cracks in half <\/a>and heads to the psych ward to be fixed, only to be found out by the paparazzi.<\/p>\n

I was pleasantly surprised. Shocked, really, to see how open and frank and compassionate Catherine sounded when describing her growing depression and anxiety over the last years, and her efforts at regaining composure and confidence. She defies every stereotype the media wants to pin on her, and emerges a hero, instead of a pathetic star.<\/p>\n

Especially consoling to me were the paragraphs discussing her attempts to seem normal and go on with everything as though she weren\u2019t suffering inside, and that few people really were able to see through the masquerade. Journalists Sharon Cotliar and Michelle Tauber write:<\/p>\n

Amid mounting feelings of depression, the Tony-winning performer who relished singing live before thousands became anxious at the thought of simply meeting a few friends at a restaurant. \u201cThe simple things would just seem overwhelming, like going out to dinner,\u201d says her friend. \u201cShe would almost have to psych herself up to be able to do it. I didn\u2019t fit with our Catherine.\u201d<\/p>\n

She did such a good job of masking her troubles that few in her circle realized how seriously she was struggling. \u201cTo be honest Catherine functioned quite well,\u201d says a longtime colleague. Still in phone conversations, \u201cyou could just feel in the tone of her voice a degree of sadness,\u201d adds the colleague. \u201cI just knew that something wasn\u2019t quite right.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I found that description refreshing because you tend to think of Hollywood stars as superhuman with a fairytale existence, immune to mood disorders or any illness for that matter. Which is why magazines like People write about them when something bad does happen. For me, there\u2019s something consoling in knowing that this beautiful celebrity was fighting for her sanity every day just like I did, and still do on some days, that she had to do what I do: put one foot in front of another until she finds herself walking with little effort.<\/p>\n

Photo of Catherine Zeta-Jones: WENN.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I must admit, when I picked up the copy of People magazine with Catherine Zeta Jones on the cover, I was nervous to read what was between the covers. Because I don\u2019t trust Hollywood\u2019s coverage of mood disorders. I mean, they don\u2019t have a great track record. There are exceptions: Brooke Shields comes to mind.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-mental-health"],"yoast_head":"\nPeople's Profile of Catherine Zeta Jones and Bipolar II - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/4913.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"People's Profile of Catherine Zeta Jones and Bipolar II - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I must admit, when I picked up the copy of People magazine with Catherine Zeta Jones on the cover, I was nervous to read what was between the covers. Because I don\u2019t trust Hollywood\u2019s coverage of mood disorders. I mean, they don\u2019t have a great track record. There are exceptions: Brooke Shields comes to mind.…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/4913.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-04-27T14:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-04-27T14:50:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/04\/catherine-zeta-jones-singing-300x259.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"People's Profile of Catherine Zeta Jones and Bipolar II - Beyond Blue","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/4913.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"People's Profile of Catherine Zeta Jones and Bipolar II - Beyond Blue","og_description":"I must admit, when I picked up the copy of People magazine with Catherine Zeta Jones on the cover, I was nervous to read what was between the covers. Because I don\u2019t trust Hollywood\u2019s coverage of mood disorders. I mean, they don\u2019t have a great track record. There are exceptions: Brooke Shields comes to mind.…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/4913.html","og_site_name":"Beyond Blue","article_published_time":"2011-04-27T14:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-04-27T14:50:12+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/04\/catherine-zeta-jones-singing-300x259.jpg"}],"author":"Beyond Blue","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/4913.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/4913.html","name":"People's Profile of Catherine Zeta Jones and Bipolar II - Beyond Blue","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/4913.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/4913.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/04\/catherine-zeta-jones-singing-300x259.jpg","datePublished":"2011-04-27T14:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-04-27T14:50:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/4913.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/4913.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/4913.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/04\/catherine-zeta-jones-singing-300x259.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/04\/catherine-zeta-jones-singing-300x259.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/4913.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"People’s Profile of Catherine Zeta Jones and Bipolar II"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/","name":"Beyond Blue","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Therese J. Borchard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75","name":"Beyond Blue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/45c\/45c6e619a20a364bd981e9dda64eaa02x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/45c\/45c6e619a20a364bd981e9dda64eaa02x96.jpg","caption":"Beyond Blue"},"description":"Therese J. Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet.com. She is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist. You may find her at her personal blog, her website, or you may follow her on Twitter @thereseborchard.","sameAs":["http:\/\/thereseborchard.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/author\/tborchard"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4913"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4916,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4913\/revisions\/4916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}