INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Sinead O’Connor Sits Down To Talk Mental Illness With Dr. Phil

By Amy Feinstein
Published on: 08:36 PST, Sep 12, 2017

It has been a long time since singer Sinead O’Connor sat down for a formal interview, but now fans will be able to hear O’Connor, in her own words, talk to Dr. Phil McGraw on Dr. Phil about her life, child abuse, and mental illness. The troubled singer has been posting videos as a cry for help, threatening suicide and talking about her troubled childhood. Now, as a result of her conversations with Dr. Phil, O’Connor says she finally feels optimistic.

On the show, Dr. Phil McGraw has taken on celebrities with mental illness in the past and has come under fire for alleged exploitation. Dr. Phil interviewed and counseled Shelley DuVall last year, and talked to her about her physical and mental illness.

DuVall told Dr. Phil, “I’m very sick and I need help.”

But Vivian Kubrick, the daughter of famed director Stanley Kubrick, said that Dr. Phil was exploiting Shelley DuVall on the show.

“Your exploitive use of Shelly Duvall is a form of LURID ENTERTAINMENT and is shameful.”

Kubrick said she was not against getting help for DuVall, but she thought it should be done in a way to maintain her dignity and not make her a sideshow freak.

“You are putting Shelly Duvall ‘on show’ while she is suffering from a pitiable state of ill health. Unquestionably, this is purely a form of lurid and exploitive entertainment — it’s appallingly cruel.”

But Sinead O’Connor reached out to Dr. Phil and insisted that she wanted to talk on television to destigmatize mental illness. Sinead O’Connor said that famous people, in particular, are reluctant to seek help, and that is a problem. Sinead O’Connor got onto Dr. Phil McGraw’s radar after posting a video from a New Jersey hotel. In it, O’Connor seemed suicidal and angry.

But Dr. Phil had Sinead O’Connor transported to a psychiatric facility to get stabilized. O’Connor told McGraw that child abuse and child sexual abuse left her reeling. After a radical hysterectomy, O’Connor said she had a breakdown.

“I am fed up of being defined as the crazy person, the child abuse survivor.”

Sinead O’Connor explained to Dr. Phil that she was raised by a mother who delighted in hurting people.

“She ran a torture chamber. She was a person who took delight in hurting you. What I love about my mother is that she’s dead.”

Dr. Phil explained that Sinead O’Connor sought him out for help and insisted that their interviews be shared on his show. She explained that even though she realized she needs help, she still wants to help others, and Dr. Phil complied.

“She called and she said, ‘I want to destigmatize mental illness,'” he said. “She said, ‘I clearly have a problem, too many musicians are dying. I want to use my life, be a teaching tool. I’m willing to sit down and talk.’ ”

O’Connor, who still has a beautiful voice, explains that her mother was obviously mentally ill, but made her childhood a horror. Sinead O’Connor says that she was forced to live in a shed in the back yard in Ireland as a child after siding with her father when her parents split. O’Connor believed that she had what was then a normal Irish childhood, but Dr. Phil explained that there was nothing normal about the abuse she suffered.

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Whether the mental illness in the O’Connor family is inherited or not, Sinead O’Connor says she understands why her family was so frustrated with her.

“It’s not easy for families of mentally ill people. We can be difficult.”

Sinead O’Connor looks happy and relaxed speaking with Dr. Phil. She looks far different than she looked on the video she filmed in the New Jersey hotel.

Did you watch the Sinead O’Connor interview with Dr. Phil? What did you think? Do you think Dr. Phil can help O’Connor?

[Featured Image by Evan Agostini/Getty Images]

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