Fisher struggled with mental illness for much of her life, something she was outspoken about at a time when depression, anxiety and other diseases were heavily stigmatized. It took Fisher years to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and even longer for her to accept it, as she told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in 2000.
“I thought they told me I was manic depressive to make me feel better about being a drug addict,” she said, one of her first times speaking publicly about living with the disorder. “It’s what you think. If you could just control yourself … You had an indulged childhood … You were a child of privilege … I don’t know, that’s what I thought. You’re just a drug addict.”
Fisher’s struggles with addiction were public knowledge in the 1980s, and a stint in rehab marked a turning point for her in myriad ways. She wrote a novel about the experience, Postcards from the Edge, her first of several books; and she began to come to terms with living with a disease not yet well understood by the masses.