General Hospital的莫里斯·贝纳德谈到了双相情感障碍患者的生活和生存

General Hospital’s Maurice Benard is a superstar in the soap opera world, but for millions living with bipolar disorder, he is a teacher, a sympathetic ear, a firm shoulder and a symbol of survival.

General Hospital的莫里斯·贝纳德是肥皂剧界的超级明星，但对于数百万双相情感障碍患者来说，他是一位老师，一个同情的耳朵，一个坚定的肩膀，一个生存的象征。

In less than two months, two of Benard’s costars on the ABC soap, who also had the mental health condition — which according to the Mayo Clinic is characterized by extreme mood swings including depression and periods of mania — died at young ages.

在不到两个月的时间里，贝纳德在ABC肥皂剧中的两位合作演员也在年轻时死亡，他们也有精神健康问题-根据梅奥诊所的说法，这种疾病的特征是极端的情绪波动，包括抑郁和躁狂期。

Billy Miller, who played Jason Morgan and Drew Cain, died by suicide at age 43 in September, and more recently, Tyler Christopher — who won an Emmy for his portrayal of Nikolas Cassadine — died after a cardiac episode a week shy of his 51st birthday on Oct. 31. 

去年9月，扮演杰森·摩根和德鲁·凯恩的比利·米勒自杀身亡，享年43岁。最近，因饰演尼古拉斯·卡萨丁而获得艾美奖的泰勒·克里斯托弗在10月31日他51岁生日的前一周死于心脏病发作。

A three-time Daytime Emmy winner for his portrayal of mobster Sonny Corinthos, Benard, 60, was 22 when he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1985. At that time it was referred to as manic depression, and the disorder was not as understood — or as openly discussed — as it is today. 

贝纳德在1985年22岁时被诊断出患有双相情感障碍，他因扮演黑帮人物桑尼·科林斯而三次获得日间艾美奖。当时它被称为躁狂抑郁症，这种疾病不像今天这样被理解，也不像今天这样被公开讨论。

“For about a two week period, I was just acting strange,” he tells PEOPLE, explaining that his behavior at the time included becoming violent with his mother, which had never happened before. That’s when his mother called the police on him. But upon their arrival, Benard says he was acting perfectly normally. 

“有大约两周的时间，我表现得很奇怪，”他告诉《人物》杂志，并解释说他当时的行为包括对他母亲暴力，这是以前从未发生过的。就在那时，他妈妈报了警。但在他们到达后，贝纳德说他的行为完全正常。

"My dad's crying; my mom's crying, but the cops couldn’t do anything because I became normal,” he recalls. “And then the next morning, they took me to the mental institute.”

“我爸爸在哭;我妈妈在哭，但警察无能为力，因为我变得正常了，”他回忆道。“然后第二天早上，他们把我带到精神病院。”

While in the county hospital for four or five days, Benard says he began acting like the little girl, Regan, in The Exorcist, spitting on his brother, his father and large male nurses at the facility. 

贝纳德说，在县医院住了四五天之后，他开始表现得像the Exorcist里的小女孩里根一样，向他的哥哥、父亲和医院里身材高大的男护士吐口水。

“It was just really scary in there,” he explains. “I was tied down from my wrist, my waist and my ankles. And all I wanted to do was escape the whole time I was there. ‘Get me outta here! Get me outta here! Get me out!’ They didn't know what I had for about a month, maybe two months.”

“那里真的很可怕，”他解释说。“我的手腕、腰部和脚踝都被绑住了。我想做的就是逃离我在那里的整个时间。“把我弄出去!”放我出去!放我出去!’他们大概有一个月，或者两个月不知道我吃了什么。”

Benard went on to meet his wife, Paula, shortly afterward and they married in 1990. She got a look at his struggle with the disorder from the very beginning but has never wavered in her love, support and loyalty.

不久之后，贝纳德遇到了他的妻子宝拉，并于1990年结婚。她从一开始就看到了他与疾病的斗争，但她对他的爱、支持和忠诚从未动摇。

There was even a time when Maurice threatened to kill her, but, she said in her husband's podcast, State of Mind, that the man she saw in that moment, “It wasn’t Maurice. He was sick.”

甚至有一段时间，莫里斯威胁要杀了她，但她在丈夫的播客State of Mind中说，她在那一刻看到的那个男人“不是莫里斯”。他病了。”

When asked if it was difficult for her along the way and if she ever thought “I didn’t sign up for this,” she said simply, “It’s no different than living with anyone with any other problem that they have. ...I mean, yes, it’s difficult, you know, but I don’t think twice about it. I just do whatever we have to do to manage it. ... And when times are hard, then we dig deeper and figure out what we need to do.”

当被问及这对她来说是否很困难，以及她是否曾经想过“我不是为了这个而来的”，她简单地说，“这和和任何有其他问题的人住在一起没有什么不同. ...我的意思是，是的，这很难，你知道的，但我不会多想。我只是做我们必须做的事情来管理. ...当形势艰难时，我们就会深入挖掘，弄清楚我们需要做什么。”

Although he has had both ups and downs managing the condition for the last 40 years, during the pandemic, he says he hit a low that had him thinking about ending his life.

尽管在过去的40年里，他在控制病情方面经历了起起伏伏，但在大流行期间，他说他达到了一个低谷，让他考虑过结束生命。