For 15 years, Livirén Bratterud has carried a secret. A secret about her biggest fights. Now, however, she shares the secret with the outside world, in connection with the launch of the Norwegian documentary "Heavy Jacket".

Image: Dreamstime (with licence)

This writes nrk.no. They write further:

The filmmaker himself became ill for the first time at the age of 16. She had many bad thoughts, became very scared, and ended up in a psychosis.

It would be two years from the first outbreak before she was diagnosed with type 1 bipolar disorder.

Livirén tells nrk.no:

I did not even understand that I was sick. I was very young, terribly sad and terrified of being locked up in a psychiatric ward, so getting a diagnosis thrown at me was just painful. It took a few more admissions before I acknowledged the disease. 

Now she is relevant with the documentary Heavy jacket. She talks about this:

It has not helped me to have walked around and hidden this for 15 years. It creates additional loads and anxiety to have to hold the facade, so today I am ready to let it out. And it is probably not such a big crisis that can occur, she says thoughtfully.

Source

• I have kept my diagnosis a secret for 15 years. nrk.no