Carrie Fisher’s Death Inspires Honesty About Mental Health #InHonorOfCarrie

Fans reveal their own struggles with bipolar disorder following death of iconic “Star Wars” heroine

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Thanks to writer Ana Marie Cox, the hashtag #InHonorOfCarrie has become a haven for sufferers of mental illness.

As news broke Tuesday of the death of “Star Wars” heroine Carrie Fisher, Cox tweeted that the star had inspired her to be more open about her own struggles with bipolar disorder.

“I’m pretty open about being in recovery; I’ve been more circumspect about mental illness,” wrote Cox, who writes for The New York Times and is a correspondent for MTV News.

“In honor of Carrie Fisher: I’m bipolar, too,” Cox (pictured) added.

Fisher was open about her struggles with substance abuse and mental illness, using them as material for her second career as a successful writer. In a newspaper column published just weeks before she died, Fisher wrote that people with bipolar disorder were “given a challenging illness, and there is no other option than to meet those challenges.”

After Cox published her tweet, Twitter users began adding their own testimonials, in effect outing themselves as long-silent sufferers of mental illness. Julie DiCaro, a sports radio anchor in Chicago, suggested the hashtag #InHonorOfCarrie.

A sampling of the reaction:

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