General Hospital的莫里斯·貝納德談到了雙相情感障礙患者的生活和生存

General Hospital’s Maurice Benard is a superstar in the soap opera world, but for millions living with bipolar disorder, he is a teacher, a sympathetic ear, a firm shoulder and a symbol of survival.

General Hospital的莫里斯·貝納德是肥皂劇界的超級明星，但對于數(shù)百萬雙相情感障礙患者來說，他是一位老師，一個同情的耳朵，一個堅定的肩膀，一個生存的象征。

In less than two months, two of Benard’s costars on the ABC soap, who also had the mental health condition — which according to the Mayo Clinic is characterized by extreme mood swings including depression and periods of mania — died at young ages.

在不到兩個月的時間里，貝納德在ABC肥皂劇中的兩位合作演員也在年輕時死亡，他們也有精神健康問題-根據(jù)梅奧診所的說法，這種疾病的特征是極端的情緒波動，包括抑郁和躁狂期。

Billy Miller, who played Jason Morgan and Drew Cain, died by suicide at age 43 in September, and more recently, Tyler Christopher — who won an Emmy for his portrayal of Nikolas Cassadine — died after a cardiac episode a week shy of his 51st birthday on Oct. 31. 

去年9月，扮演杰森·摩根和德魯·凱恩的比利·米勒自殺身亡，享年43歲。最近，因飾演尼古拉斯·卡薩丁而獲得艾美獎的泰勒·克里斯托弗在10月31日他51歲生日的前一周死于心臟病發(fā)作。

A three-time Daytime Emmy winner for his portrayal of mobster Sonny Corinthos, Benard, 60, was 22 when he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1985. At that time it was referred to as manic depression, and the disorder was not as understood — or as openly discussed — as it is today. 

貝納德在1985年22歲時被診斷出患有雙相情感障礙，他因扮演黑幫人物桑尼·科林斯而三次獲得日間艾美獎。當時它被稱為躁狂抑郁癥，這種疾病不像今天這樣被理解，也不像今天這樣被公開討論。

“For about a two week period, I was just acting strange,” he tells PEOPLE, explaining that his behavior at the time included becoming violent with his mother, which had never happened before. That’s when his mother called the police on him. But upon their arrival, Benard says he was acting perfectly normally. 

“有大約兩周的時間，我表現(xiàn)得很奇怪，”他告訴《人物》雜志，并解釋說他當時的行為包括對他母親暴力，這是以前從未發(fā)生過的。就在那時，他媽媽報了警。但在他們到達后，貝納德說他的行為完全正常。

"My dad's crying; my mom's crying, but the cops couldn’t do anything because I became normal,” he recalls. “And then the next morning, they took me to the mental institute.”

“我爸爸在哭;我媽媽在哭，但警察無能為力，因為我變得正常了，”他回憶道。“然后第二天早上，他們把我?guī)У骄癫≡骸?rdquo;

While in the county hospital for four or five days, Benard says he began acting like the little girl, Regan, in The Exorcist, spitting on his brother, his father and large male nurses at the facility. 

貝納德說，在縣醫(yī)院住了四五天之后，他開始表現(xiàn)得像the Exorcist里的小女孩里根一樣，向他的哥哥、父親和醫(yī)院里身材高大的男護士吐口水。

“It was just really scary in there,” he explains. “I was tied down from my wrist, my waist and my ankles. And all I wanted to do was escape the whole time I was there. ‘Get me outta here! Get me outta here! Get me out!’ They didn't know what I had for about a month, maybe two months.”

“那里真的很可怕，”他解釋說。“我的手腕、腰部和腳踝都被綁住了。我想做的就是逃離我在那里的整個時間。“把我弄出去!”放我出去!放我出去!’他們大概有一個月，或者兩個月不知道我吃了什么。”

Benard went on to meet his wife, Paula, shortly afterward and they married in 1990. She got a look at his struggle with the disorder from the very beginning but has never wavered in her love, support and loyalty.

不久之后，貝納德遇到了他的妻子寶拉，并于1990年結(jié)婚。她從一開始就看到了他與疾病的斗爭，但她對他的愛、支持和忠誠從未動搖。

There was even a time when Maurice threatened to kill her, but, she said in her husband's podcast, State of Mind, that the man she saw in that moment, “It wasn’t Maurice. He was sick.”

甚至有一段時間，莫里斯威脅要殺了她，但她在丈夫的播客State of Mind中說，她在那一刻看到的那個男人“不是莫里斯”。他病了。”

When asked if it was difficult for her along the way and if she ever thought “I didn’t sign up for this,” she said simply, “It’s no different than living with anyone with any other problem that they have. ...I mean, yes, it’s difficult, you know, but I don’t think twice about it. I just do whatever we have to do to manage it. ... And when times are hard, then we dig deeper and figure out what we need to do.”

當被問及這對她來說是否很困難，以及她是否曾經(jīng)想過“我不是為了這個而來的”，她簡單地說，“這和和任何有其他問題的人住在一起沒有什么不同. ...我的意思是，是的，這很難，你知道的，但我不會多想。我只是做我們必須做的事情來管理. ...當形勢艱難時，我們就會深入挖掘，弄清楚我們需要做什么。”

Although he has had both ups and downs managing the condition for the last 40 years, during the pandemic, he says he hit a low that had him thinking about ending his life.

盡管在過去的40年里，他在控制病情方面經(jīng)歷了起起伏伏，但在大流行期間，他說他達到了一個低谷，讓他考慮過結(jié)束生命。