Rapper Kanye West has accused people of using his bipolar diagnosis to “discriminate” him “in any way”.
The 41-year-old rapper was diagnosed with the mental health condition two years ago, and has likened his illness to a “sprained brain”, as he slammed critics for taking the issue and doing “everything to make it worse”, just because bipolar has a “strong stigma” attached to it.
He said: “It’s a health issue that has a strong stigma on it and people are allowed to say anything about it and discriminate in any way. This is like a sprained brain, like having a sprained ankle. And if someone has a sprained ankle, you’re not going to push on him more. With us, once our brain gets to a point of spraining, people do everything to make it worse. They do everything possible. They got us to that point and they do everything to make it worse.”
Kanye – who has North, five, Saint, three, Chicago, 16 months, and newborn Psalm with his wife Kim Kardashian West – also hit out at mental health facilities, as he alleged he suffered poor treatment when he visited one.
He added: “They have this moment where they put you – they handcuff you, they drug you, they put you on the bed, and they separate you from everyone you know. That’s something that I am so happy that I experienced myself so I can start by changing that moment. When you are in that state, you have to have someone you trust. It is cruel and primitive to do that. They love to write you off. They love to cut your sentences off halfway. What you say doesn’t mean as much.”
The ‘Heartless’ rapper spoke about the different moods he experiences through his bipolar diagnosis, and said that he feels more “adolescent” when he’s “ramped up”, compared to feeling “hyper-paranoid” when he’s going through a severe “episode”.
Speaking during an appearance on Netflix series ‘My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman‘, he said: “When you ramp up, it expresses your personality more. You can become almost more adolescent in your expression. This is my specific experience that I’ve had over the past two years, because I’ve only been diagnosed for two years now. When you’re in this [episode] state, you’re hyper-paranoid about everything. Everyone – this is my experience, other people have different experiences – everyone now is an actor. Everything’s a conspiracy. You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things.”
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