In an interview, James Packer opened up about his battle with mental health, saying that he felt like he was a zombie after he was given lithium in 2022.
He discussed his various struggles during the interview, which was his first since 2006. Some of these include his bipolar disorder and his split from pop star Mariah Carey in 2016.
According to the 57-year-old, he and Carey had broken up, and the pop star thought that he planted a story in a magazine. This caused her to look bad.
He also stated that she threatened to make him out to be a bad person. The couple first met in 2014 and immediately started a whirlwind romance.
The couple called it quits in October, and she didn’t mention him in her memoir. In 2020, she told The Guardian that if their relationship matters, it will be in her book, though she didn’t specify whether or not it was physical. In 2018, Carey revealed that she had been battling with bipolar disorder since 2001.
In 2020, he opened up about his mental health issues during a casino inquiry in NSW. He revealed that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and that he had been taking various medications for his condition.
He said that in 2022, he was given lithium, which made him feel like he was a zombie.
He claims that working with psychiatrists in different countries, such as Argentina, Israel, and the U.S., taught him that the wrong drug can cause a person to experience a worse reaction.
Lithium is an ingredient used to treat mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Lithium can help reduce the intensity of the feelings that people with bipolar disorder often experience, such as excitement and high mood.
According to Christopher Davey, the head of the psychiatry department at the University of Melbourne, lithium is regarded as the main evidence-supported treatment for the disorder.
Although lithium is widely used to treat bipolar disorder, it doesn’t work for everyone. According to Davey, the effects of lithium on people can be similar to those that people experience with other mental illnesses. Some of these include impairment in concentration and sedation.
Individuals with bipolar disorder can experience these effects on a spectrum, from mild to severe. He said that people usually start with low doses to avoid side effects.
Tamsyn Van Rheenen, an associate professor at the University of Melbourne, explained that it can be hard to diagnose the symptoms of bipolar disorder in people like Packer.
She noted that there is also little evidence suggesting that lithium can have negative effects on cognition. She said that there is proof that treatment with lithium can help improve a person’s cognitive skills.
According to Van Rheenen, research has shown that up to 60 percent of individuals with bipolar disorder also experience cognitive dysfunction, which could be related to the condition itself.
This means that the uncomfortable feelings that Packer claimed to have experienced could have been caused by his illness.