Kirsten Storms has been playing Maxie Jones on General Hospital for nearly 20 years. Maurice Benard also stars on the soap as Sonny Corinthos. They both live with bipolar disorder.
Benard has been open with his journey for years, and he hosts the State of Mind podcast, where he talks with friends and celebrities about their careers and about mental health.
Storms recently opened up to her friend about anxiety, bipolar disorder, medication, and all things mental health.
Kirsten Storms lives with Bipolar I
According to the Mayo Clinic, bipolar disorder, formerly called manic depression is “a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings that include emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression).”
Bipolar I is a separate diagnosis from bipolar II. “While the manic episodes of bipolar I disorder can be severe and dangerous, individuals with bipolar II disorder can be depressed for longer periods, which can cause significant impairment.”
“I have bipolar I,” said Storms. She explained that this makes her easily “frantic” about things and she “obsesses” about being on time. “In bipolar, you’re not manic or depressed all the time. You have days of clarity,” she explained.
Kirsten Storms was put on the wrong medication
Storms was originally diagnosed with depression, which is different from bipolar. She was put on an antidepressant, and when it wasn’t working, they upped her dosage, which she said made it worse.
After that, she was prescribed a booster for the antidepressant, and that’s “when things hit the fan for me.”
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“It turns out the medication they had put me on, the booster, you’re not supposed to give to people with bipolar I,” the GH actor explained. “‘Cause it intensifies their symptoms.”
Storms had not been diagnosed with bipolar yet, but she knew something wasn’t right.
Kirsten Storms advocated for herself
Storms explained that during her “days of clarity,” she knew she was still having issues that were not helped by her antidepressant and booster. The General Hospital star is a big journaler, and when she would go back and read her journal entries, she didn’t understand her own written words. She didn’t know why she felt the way she felt.
Storms advocated for herself when she eventually asked her psychiatrist if she could be tested for bipolar disorder. She explained that she had earlier asked a different psychiatrist to be tested but was told, “No, that’s not what you have.”
Storms is a self-proclaimed researcher, so she googled her symptoms and kept finding bipolar. “When I would read the symptoms, I would think, ‘that is me; I know it.’”
Thankfully, this psychiatrist agreed to test her, and when he got the results, he told her, “OK, we have to take you off the medication you’re on immediately.” They cut it off cold turkey, and she threw up for a week because it is best to wean off antidepressants.
“I started on the bipolar medication immediately,” she began. “And within, like, two weeks … my life literally just changed.” She said it was a relief it is to wake up and not feel “consumed by all the things in your head.”
How to get help: To connect with mental health resources near you, visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) website.
