Mariah Carey revealed her struggles with Bipolar Disorder to People magazine. The pop diva says she was diagnosed in 2001 when she was “hospitalized for a physical and mental breakdown,” and she “didn’t want to believe it.” She only sought treatment recently—including therapy and medication for “bipolar II disorder”—after a very difficult couple of years, Carey said. The singer thought that her sleeplessness was due to a “severe sleep disorder,” but it turned out to be a form of mania. “Eventually I would just hit a wall,” she explained. “I guess my depressive episodes were characterized by having very low energy.” Carey said she lived in “constant fear someone would expose” her. “It was too heavy a burden to carry and I simply couldn’t do that anymore,” she told the magazine. “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.”

The Mayo Clinic defines bipolar disorder as “a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings that include emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression).”

Carey was previously married to Music Executive Tommy Mottola and Nick Cannon who whom she shares 6-year-old twins Monroe and Moroccan with him, said she decided to go public now because she’s “just in a really good place right now, where I’m comfortable discussing my struggles with bipolar II disorder.”

“I’m hopeful we can get to a place where the stigma is lifted from people going through anything alone,” Carey said. “It can be incredibly isolating. It does not have to define you and I refuse to allow it to define me or control me.”

According to the magazine, Carey is currently back in the studio working an album due later this year. Read the full story below:

http://people.com/music/mariah-carey-bipolar-disorder-diagnosis-exclusive/

Here are the Culture Keeper we wish the pop diva all the best.