14 DAY TRIAL // Actress Catherine Zeta Jones has been hospitalized at an undisclosed facility, where she willingly admitted herself to seek help for mental health issues, made worse by the stress she’s been under for the past year.
She’s been by husband Michael Douglas’ side throughout his long and difficult battle with cancer, and, at the same time, she also had to deal with constant media attention and sometimes-negativist tabloid reports.
In the end, it all caught up to Catherine, who is suffering from bipolar disorder II: stress probably set off the episodes and she decided to seek help before going back to work, her rep says for People magazine.
“After dealing with the stress of the past year, Catherine made the decision to check in to a mental health facility for a brief stay to treat her Bipolar II disorder,” the actress’ publicist explains.
“She‘s feeling great and looking forward to starting work this week on her two upcoming films,” the rep adds.
According to a friend, Catherine may have already left the center, where she only remained for a few days. It was more of a precaution than anything else, the unnamed source seems to hint.
“There’s no question it’s been a stressful year. Catherine has had deal with Michael’s illness and that’s been hard,” says the friend, who refuses to go on the record with his or her name.
“She went in for a few days because she’s about to start working, and wanted to make sure she’s in top form, which she is,” the spy adds.
People says those suffering from bipolar II represent more of suicide risk because they experience more depression and the “down” periods extend over longer periods of time, and are not always followed by “up” moments.
“Bipolar disorder, a mental illness marked by elevated or irritable moods alternating with periods of depression, afflicts about 6 million Americans,” the celebrity magazine also notes.