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Home / Entertainment

Troubled singer Sinead O'Connor says she is suicidal and living in motel

By Emily Crane
Daily Mail·
8 Aug, 2017 01:03 AM4 mins to read

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Sinead O'Connor, 50, has posted a 12 minute video on Facebook discussing her battles with mental illness and pleas for her family to contact her. Source - Facebook/Sinead O'Connor

Irish singer Sinead O'Connor has posted a concerning video online saying she is suicidal and living out of a Travelodge motel in New Jersey.

O'Connor, 50, posted the 12-minute video on Facebook last week revealing she was all by herself and fighting to stay alive every day.

"I am now living in a Travelodge motel in the a**e end of New Jersey," she said while sitting on the motel room bed.

"I'm all by myself. And there's absolutely nobody in my life except my doctor, my psychiatrist - the sweetest man on earth, who says I'm his hero - and that's about the only f***ing thing keeping me alive at the moment... and that's kind of pathetic.

"I want everyone to know what it's like, that's why I'm making this video.

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"Mental illness, it's like drugs, it doesn't give a s**t who you are, and equally what's worse, it's the stigma, it doesn't give a s**t who you are.

"Suddenly all the people who are supposed to be loving you and taking care of you are treating you like s**t. It's like a witch hunt."

The troubled singer-songwriter said she was "fighting like all the millions of people" battling a mental illness, the Daily Mail reported.

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"If it was just for me I'd be gone. Straight away back to my mum... because I've walked this earth alone for two years now as punishment for being mentally f**king ill and getting angry that no one would f***ing take care of me," she said.

"I'm a 5'4' little f***ing woman wandering the world for two years by myself."

The footage immediately sparked fear among her fans.

"I go to bed every night worried about you," one person wrote. "I wake up and tentatively log onto Facebook because of my worry for you."

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Another wrote: "To Sinead's kids get over and help your mother, she is crying out for you all, forget what has happened and forgive, keep forgiving her until you get over there and give her a hug."

O'Connor, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder more than a decade ago, has spoken of her mental health problems previously.

She told Oprah Winfrey in 2007 that before her diagnosis she had struggled with thoughts of suicide and overwhelming fear. She said at the time that medication had helped her find more balance, but "it's a work in progress."

The troubled singer-songwriter (above in 1990) said in the Facebook video last week that she was 'fighting like all the millions of people' battling a mental illness. Photo / Getty
The troubled singer-songwriter (above in 1990) said in the Facebook video last week that she was 'fighting like all the millions of people' battling a mental illness. Photo / Getty

O'Connor sparked a police search in May last year when she failed to return from a bike ride in suburban Chicago.

About two hours after she left on the ride, a rambling message was posted on her official Facebook page that referred to emotional trauma she had been through over the years, prompting fears she had disappeared to take her own life.

She was found by police later that day at an unidentified hotel.

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O'Connor, who is a mother to four children from different relationships, took to Facebook in 2015 to say she had taken an overdose at a hotel somewhere in Ireland. Irish police later said she had been found safe.

The next month, she posted on Facebook that she had been detained in a hospital for mental health evaluation.

Comedian Arsenio Hall dropped a $5million lawsuit against O'Connor earlier this year after she apologised and retracted comments she made on Facebook that he had supplied drugs to Prince.

If you are worried about your or someone else's mental health, the best place to get help is your GP or local mental health provider. However, if you or someone else is in danger or endangering others, call police immediately on 111.

Or if you need to talk to someone else:

• LIFELINE: 0800 543 354 (available 24/7)
• SUICIDE CRISIS HELPLINE: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (available 24/7)
• YOUTHLINE: 0800 376 633
• NEED TO TALK? Free call or text 1737 (available 24/7)
• KIDSLINE: 0800 543 754 (available 24/7)
• WHATSUP: 0800 942 8787 (1pm to 11pm)
• DEPRESSION HELPLINE: 0800 111 757

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