Bipolar Catherine Zeta Jones Says She Is ‘Sick’ Of Talking About Disorder

Catherine Zeta-Jones shocked fans last year when she made the highly personal admission that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a condition characterized by mood swings with intense highs and lows.

In an interview with People last year, the 43-year-old actress told the magazine that she hoped her confession might help others struggling with the disease to pursue treatment, saying, ““if my revelation of having bipolar II has encouraged one person to seek help, then it’s worth it.” But after a year and a half of persistent questions about her mental health condition, Zeta-Jones has apparently reached her breaking point and wants to shelve the topic.

“You know what, I’m sick of talking about it because I never wanted to be the poster child for this,” Zeta-Jones, 43, told the host of “Good Morning America.“ “I never wanted this to come out publicly.”

Everyone has things going on and we deal with them the best we can,” she continued, while promoting her new film “Playing for Keeps.” “We can’t jump from the rooftops shouting, you know, about, ‘I have this, look at me, victim.’ No. We all have issues in life and I’m really happy that I have great friends, great support and that’s all I can do.”

Zeta-Jones’ condition was confirmed by her publicist in April of 2011, after she claimed she was “outed” to have sought out treatment. Zeta-Jones reportedly spent five days in a treatment facility after a period of depression during which her husband, Michael Douglas, with whom she has two children, was diagnosed with throat cancer.

“I must say, Catherine’s being quite open about it because she was outed, you know,” Douglas said on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” weeks after the incident became public knowledge. “She went to go get some help and some other patient probably in there said, ‘Hey, you won’t believe who’s in here now.’ And, so, once that happens, I think she felt [it] best to kind of get out the story.”

“You know, after Michael had his cancer and then I had my issues, I had to like, stop for a moment,” Zeta-Jones said. “And then I’ve just been doing smaller roles in great, fun movies with great directors and that’s fun for me. It sounds like a whole bunch, but it wasn’t that much really.”