Lily Taylor: Living with Bipolar

Regarding Bipolar Disorder: Lili has a family history of bipolar disorder (manic-depression) through her father. She received a diagnoses of bipolar disorder herself as a teen during her high-school years. In an article entitled “Lili in Bloom,“ Gini Sikes of the Washington Post writes, “Taylor herself became so depressed in high school that for a time she simply stopped going. She also developed an eating disorder, now past. ... ‘In high school I thought I was much fatter than I actually was. I figured if no one could see my emotional pain, maybe they'd see my bones sticking out and recognize I'm distraught’.”

However, Lili believes she was misdiagnosed and does not take medications. The therapist Lila saw during her teens “suspected Taylor's symptoms might disappear once she found an outlet for her creative energies -- which is exactly what happened, Taylor says” (NPR, 2004).

In a question and answer session after a performance of "Dead Eye Boy" in New York on April 28, 2001, a member of the audience asked, “I've read that you were depressed when you were younger. How did you overcome this to become such a talented and happy person?”

She responded, “Oh...I had the blues at times like everyone else but I wasn't, you know, seriously depressed. It was just one of those things that I got over.”

References

IMDb. (2005). Lili Taylor.

NPR. (2004, March 29). Intersections: Inside the mind of Lili Taylor.

Sikes, G. (1993, October 17). Lili in bloom: The scripts provide the lines, but the actress Lili Taylor provides the life. The Washing Post, G.01.

Question and Answer with Lili. (2001, April 28).