Life and Soul of the Party ... Mentally Ill

Alex Fontaine, daughter of actor Peter Fontaine, has bipolar disorder. In an interview with Becky Sheaves, Alex shares some of her personal experiences. “All my life I'd been veering between elation and depression, using alcohol to self-medicate, when in fact I'd been suffering with the classic symptoms of manic depression. By the time I found myself in the Priory [Treatment Center], I was 32 and my life in tatters. I was out of work, penniless, with a raging addiction to vodka.” I seemed the life and soul of the party. In fact, I was mentally ill.