Remember actress, Lisa Nicole Carson? She’s had a successful acting career. She’s best known for her as “Josie,” who was “Nina’s” (Nia Long) best friend in the ’90s classic, Love Jones, and also for her roles on hit TV shows, including ER, Ally McBeal , as well as in films like Eve’s Bayou, Jason’s Lyric and more. On of her most recent roles was in BET’s N.E. biopic, The New Edition Story, but Lisa’s most challenging role to date has probably been her real life role of becoming an overcomer and a survivor.
After years of the public hearing rumors about Lisa being very temperamental and difficult to work with at times, it wasn’t until 2015 that she finally decided to speak out about a mental condition she eventually learned was the root to her behavioral outbursts in Hollywood.
Lisa (53) learned that she is bipolar and that’s why her career has suffered over the past decade. She was fired from the hit show, Ally McBeal, as a result of her extreme mood swings, which devastated her. She also was admitted to a psychiatric ward in 2000 after having a multiple number of bipolar breakdowns on and off set.
A bipolar diagnosis was the last thing she was expecting to hear from her doc, so it kind of slapped her across the head like a sack of bricks when she found out. However, Lisa is very grateful that she was able to get answers about behaviors that she simply could not understand at that time.
Here’s what Lisa Nicole Carson revealed to People Magazine:
Via People Magazine: “From the time I stepped away from show business [in 2001] until now, I’ve been on a long, very complicated and challenging journey,” says Carson. “I didn’t know if I was going to make it out.”
“I don’t really have an option to be silent about my illness, although I wanted to be for many years,” Carson reveals. “But since I had a public breakdown, it’s something I felt I had to address.” … “When you lose your mind it’s as traumatic as it sounds. It’s not anything you can imagine happening to you.” […] Carson had her first psychotic breakdown in 1997. For the next seven years, she says, there were “too many breakdowns to count.”
Carson on how she felt after first being diagnosed:
“It didn’t make any sense to me, at all. I had never heard of it. I was in denial and would not take my medicine.” In the years that followed, she experienced more mania than depression. “Sometimes it can be beautiful,” she says. “And sometimes it can be horrifying.”
Lisa revealed that she has been stable for over a decade now, due to years of consulting with doctors and trying experimental medications to control her mood:
“Just being at a place where I am healthy, excited about life and auditioning is a joy. I feel very blessed,” [said Lisa].
Hopes her story can help others:
“It’s a risk for me to be open,” she admits. “I never wanted to breathe a world about what happened to me. But I’ve had a change of heart. It’s rare for someone who has something as severe as I’ve had to come out the other side, but I’d like to let people know that you can. You can get to the other side.”
She is now living quietly in Hollywood, where she is now successfully relaunching her acting career. The New Edition Story was hopefully just the tip of the iceberg for Carson.
We salute Ms. Carson for being so honest about her condition that silently affects millions of people. Bipolar disorder is not something to be ashamed of and if more people, like Lisa, continue to bring awareness to it, more people afflicted by the condition will learn to seek the proper help and medical attention that they deserve. So we’re giving an Old School high-five and fist bump to Lisa Nicole Carson!
