somewhere in london

Recently people on the Viv and Larry FB page had expressed their confusion about Vivien Leigh’s struggle with mental health issues and why Laurence Olivier ended up divorcing her.

Here’s a post I did lat year that goes into a bit of detail about the situation and tries to clarify.

“When I arrived at this house I was told I would find her outside on an upstairs balcony; stepping gently on to this, I saw her. She was leaning with her elbows upon the railing and her face in her hands. I called her softly and she looked up at me. It was as if her eyes were misted over, all grey-green-blue; only the tiniest pinprick of a pupil was discernible. I said, ‘Hello, darling,’ and when she spoke to me it was in the tone of halting, dream-like amazement that people in the theatre use for mad scenes when they can’t think of anything better. My instinctive reaction was that she was putting it on. I took her very gently in my arms, not able for the life of me to think of anything to ask beyond did she think perhaps there was something the matter with her? She turned away from the railing towards the wall and with the wonderment of a first communion said, ‘I’m in love.’ I asked very gently, ‘who with, darling?’ Then — approaching the Most High — ‘Pe-ter…Fi-i-inch.’ Where the hell was he by the way, I wondered.”

—Laurence Olivier describing his initial encounter with Vivien Leigh during her nervous breakdown in March 1953 in Confessions of An Actor

It makes me sad that there are so many misconceptions surrounding Vivien Leigh and her struggle with bipolar disorder. I’ve been doing quite a bit of research into this area of her life recently for my project. It seems to me that previous biographers have been remiss in properly trying to understand what she went through, and what Larry went through (and her friends and those around her) as a result. It’s been so glossed over and shallow in approach. Granted, a lot of this material was not available when previous bios had been written, but there seems to be a lot of ignorance and rumour surrounding the subject due to lack of research and understanding. I’m aiming to clear this up and shed some clearer light on the subject.

31 Days of the Oliviers—“Vivien Leigh: How Her Struggle with Bipolar Disorder Helped Me Navigate My Own”

A fan of vivandlarry.com tells the personal story of how reading about Vivien Leigh has inspired her and helped her through her own battle with Bipolar Disorder

Blogged » Vivien Leigh and Bipolar Disorder

Larry Olivier gives David Niven a heartfelt hug of thanks at LAX where Vivien had been sedated and boarded on a plane to the east coast en rout to London following her nervous breakdown in 1953. David was with Vivien when it happened. The LA Times reported: “before boarding the plane to the East Coast, the anguished thespian broke down and sobbed in friend David Niven’s arms.”

People with bipolar disorder exhibiting psychotic symptoms can sometimes be misdiagnosed as having schizophrenia, another serious mental illness.

I remember reading in Laurence Olivier’s autobiography that when Vivien was officially diagnosed as manic depressive, they told him she would most likely become schizophrenic.  However, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are not the same thing. It’s sad that Vivien and other people like her didn’t have the proper information or treatment for serious mental illness.  Her life probably would have been a lot easier.

I was just reading about schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.  Since the incident that happened to my brother last year, I’ve learned that paranoid schizophrenia runs in my dad’s family, and that both my grandmother and her sister were affected by it.  Apparently my grandma was even committed a few times and had shock therapy.  Also, one of my dad’s sisters has…something, but I don’t think it’s as severe.  Except my dad never wants to talk about it, so no one knows all of the information (which I think would help my brother a lot).  Anyway, I’m prone to anxiety and have been treated for depression, but sometimes I get really scared that I’m going to become schizophrenic, and in women it usually develops later (like late 20s early 30s), even though symptoms can start earlier. 

WWVLD?  I know bipolar and schizophrenia aren’t the same, but they’re really similar.  I really shouldn’t worry about this, but sometimes I can’t help it.  Eeek.