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My mom and I watched Carrie Fisher’s one woman special Wishful Drinking on HBO together. It was so much fun for us, and we could each relate to the Hollywood stories she told. Carrie was funny, self effacing and honest. She went into detail on her crazy family background and upbringing, and somehow she managed to make extreme dysfunction sound hilarious. She was also very honest about the fact that she’s an addict, that she has bipolar disorder and that she’s used electroconvulsive therapy to treat it.
The last we heard of Carrie she was triumphantly showing off her 50 pound weight loss as a new spokesperson for Jenny Craig. She was also sporting an entirely new face, something that she didn’t really mention but was incredibly obvious. She looks good and she hasn’t gone overboard with the Botox and fillers. Well Carrie was on The Today Show this morning promoting her latest memoir, Shockaholic. While smoking an e-cigarette, she extolled the benefits of electroconvulsive therapy, saying that it was a last ditch effort for her, that it’s not painful at this point since they put you to sleep before they do it, and that she highly recommends it. I find her awesome, but it was clear that Ann Curry didn’t get her sense of humor at all.
On if she sees it as her job to break the stigmas over ECT
I want to fracture them. Breaking is just going to far… The stigma on that one is so crazy, though. It’s a Hollywood one.
On why she did ECT
I did it because I’m bipolar. It took me 5 million years to do it. It is the last ditch treatment. They had tried everything else on me. Once I did it, it was like “I wish I’d dont this before.”
On if ECT hurts
They put you to sleep. It’s very different than it used to be. They put you to sleep, there’s no more convulsions. They should call it ET.
On if she recommends it
If they’re that far into it. I don’t recommend like if you have a free afternoon… If you’re depressed, absolutely. They put you to sleep, there’s a medication they give you so there’s no convulsions.
Remember in that movie “What Lies Beneath” when Michelle Pfiefer goes under and Harrison almost kills her? That’s the medication. I had Harrison inject it to me and almost kill me.
Ann: “Oh dear, dear dear. Alright let’s move on.”
Carrie was cracking jokes and all Ann Curry did was act all serious and go “oh,” and “mmm.” After a while, Carrie made more obvious jokes and then Curry gave a couple of forced laughs. It’s like Carrie realized that Ann was so dim she wasn’t going to get it. She’s such a lousy interviewer.
I love that Carrie is so open about what she went through and is talking about what worked for her. They should have had Al Roker interview her instead of Curry. Al would have laughed his ass off.
Here’s Carrie and her mom Debbie Reynolds at the Emmy Awards on 9/11/11. Credit: WENN.com
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