Tough-talking Linda Hamilton flexed some serious muscles in the Terminator movies, but in real life, the actor says she was battling an illness that threatened to overcome her.
After 20 years of suffering from symptoms such as severe mood swings, and undergoing a constant search for answers to her predicament, Hamilton was diagnosed bipolar 10 years ago. Since then, she says she's taken back her life through a regimen of healthy living.
She revealed the truth about her illness Tuesday in an interview with AP Radio, explaining that she wanted to help others improve their quality of life by becoming a "messenger of hope."
Hamilton said she decided that she would speak publicly about her condition after she got it under control. (She said she'd made the decision long before Jane Pauley revealed that she, too, is bipolar last month.)
She explained to AP Radio that she'd had a problem with overeating as a child and tended toward bouts of depression for the bulk of her life.
But it wasn't until she was 20 that she was hit with the full onslaught of symptoms that would stick with her until she was 40. The actor says she calls the 20 years in between her "lost years."
She described incredible highs, followed by desperate periods of despair. Finally one day, she said she met someone who recognized what her problem was.
"He said, 'You are so seriously bipolar. You should not leave this office without me calling your primary physician. and we need to get you on medicine,' " she recalled.
Nowadays, the actor concentrates on exercise and diet to help maintain her mental health.
"I recommend a balance between the therapies that are available, the medicines that are available but not to give up on the body as a result," she told AP Radio. "Forty percent of the people who are being treated for mental illness are not addressing the physical body."
Though she did not reprise the character of Sarah Connor for last year's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Hamilton currently has several film projects in the works. She'll next be seen in the coming-of-age film Smile, about an American teen who befriends a Chinese counterpart. She also stars in drama The Woodcutter with Danny Glover. Both films are currently in post-production and are expected to unspool later this year.
Hamilton also appears in a Tom Arnold-penned pic, The Kid & I, due out in 2005.