'Sex with a gorgeous guy was a nightcap': Black-ish star Jenifer Lewis, 60, opens up about her struggles with sex addiction and bipolar disorder
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5039711/Jenifer-Lewis-60-opens-sex-addiction.html
http://people.com/tv/blackish-jenifer-lewis-sex-addiction-bipolar-disorder-book-interview/
Black-ish star Jenifer Lewis has discussed her past struggles with sex addition and bipolar disorder.
The 60-year-old star gets candid in her new book, and admits she's happier and healthier nowadays compared to the health battles she faced in her 20s.
'We are as sick as our secrets, so I tell everything,' the actress says, as she details her personal journey in her memoir The Mother of Black Hollywood.
In excerpts of Jenifer's book obtained by PEOPLE, the actress reveals her sex addiction kicked in when she moved to New York City and starred in the Broadway productions Eubie! and Comin' Uptown.
'Performing on Broadway was a rush,' she writes. 'The applause coming over the footlights was like a tsunami in slow motion. The crash after the show, I assure you, is just as intense. Let’s just say that post show I had a sort of habit of sex serving as a nightcap.
PEOPLE reports that by 1989 the Missouri-born star was self-medicating with alcohol and sex to cope with her undiagnosed bipolar symptoms which were progressively getting worse.
Eventually her therapist Rachel diagnosed her with bipolar disorder.
Jenifer writes: 'Had she said, "you’re crazy," I would have agreed. I had been crazy all my life,
'When she said, 'mental illness,' I thought, 'b****, you crazy.' I associated mental illness with people who couldn’t function, with straitjackets. I certainly knew what a depressive mood was, but this other 'manic' part was new.
'When Rachel explained the details, I gasped. You mean, there is a name for describing why I talk fast and walk fast and rage, create drama, and speed when I drive a car?
'Compulsive, you say? The doodling, the braiding and unbraiding my hair? The arguing with people and storming off? Kicking s***, throwing s***? Yeah, okay, I guess all of that describes me.'
The mother-of-one says that her therapist helped her deal with her sex addiction.
'Just as alcoholism isn’t really about the liquor, my addiction wasn’t really about the sex. It was about the unresolved psychological problems that caused me pain. Sex was simply my painkiller,' she writes.
Initially she refused medication, fearing it would turn her into a 'zombie' but after some time realized the benefits.
As she began to feel better, she said: 'My responses were no longer as extreme. No matter what big issue or catastrophe loomed, I could say, "bring it" and move forward. I was better able to listen and be present and aware of the world around me,'
Jenifer has been married to Arnold Byrd, a retired Marine 1st Sergeant, since 2012 and she has an adopted daughter named Charmaine Lewis.
Her book The Mother of Black Hollywood is available for purchase November 14.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5039711/Jenifer-Lewis-60-opens-sex-addiction.html
http://people.com/tv/blackish-jenifer-lewis-sex-addiction-bipolar-disorder-book-interview/
Black-ish star Jenifer Lewis has discussed her past struggles with sex addition and bipolar disorder.
The 60-year-old star gets candid in her new book, and admits she's happier and healthier nowadays compared to the health battles she faced in her 20s.
'We are as sick as our secrets, so I tell everything,' the actress says, as she details her personal journey in her memoir The Mother of Black Hollywood.
In excerpts of Jenifer's book obtained by PEOPLE, the actress reveals her sex addiction kicked in when she moved to New York City and starred in the Broadway productions Eubie! and Comin' Uptown.
'Performing on Broadway was a rush,' she writes. 'The applause coming over the footlights was like a tsunami in slow motion. The crash after the show, I assure you, is just as intense. Let’s just say that post show I had a sort of habit of sex serving as a nightcap.
PEOPLE reports that by 1989 the Missouri-born star was self-medicating with alcohol and sex to cope with her undiagnosed bipolar symptoms which were progressively getting worse.
Eventually her therapist Rachel diagnosed her with bipolar disorder.
Jenifer writes: 'Had she said, "you’re crazy," I would have agreed. I had been crazy all my life,
'When she said, 'mental illness,' I thought, 'b****, you crazy.' I associated mental illness with people who couldn’t function, with straitjackets. I certainly knew what a depressive mood was, but this other 'manic' part was new.
'When Rachel explained the details, I gasped. You mean, there is a name for describing why I talk fast and walk fast and rage, create drama, and speed when I drive a car?
'Compulsive, you say? The doodling, the braiding and unbraiding my hair? The arguing with people and storming off? Kicking s***, throwing s***? Yeah, okay, I guess all of that describes me.'
The mother-of-one says that her therapist helped her deal with her sex addiction.
'Just as alcoholism isn’t really about the liquor, my addiction wasn’t really about the sex. It was about the unresolved psychological problems that caused me pain. Sex was simply my painkiller,' she writes.
Initially she refused medication, fearing it would turn her into a 'zombie' but after some time realized the benefits.
As she began to feel better, she said: 'My responses were no longer as extreme. No matter what big issue or catastrophe loomed, I could say, "bring it" and move forward. I was better able to listen and be present and aware of the world around me,'
Jenifer has been married to Arnold Byrd, a retired Marine 1st Sergeant, since 2012 and she has an adopted daughter named Charmaine Lewis.
Her book The Mother of Black Hollywood is available for purchase November 14.
