Linda Hamilton on Larry King Live, Brought to You by Eli Lilly

So I saw a teaser on CNN last night for Larry King Live this evening, a program featuring actress Linda Hamilton discussing "20 years of bipolar hell." The program began with King revealing that Hamilton is a spokeswoman for Eli Lilly, makers of Prozac and Zyprexa among other meds. In particular, Hamilton is repping a Lilly-sponsored program called "Complete Wellness Approach". Visit the website. It's the usual talk about making sure people with mental illness--whom Lilly is referring to as severe and persistent mental illness or SPMI--treat their bodies well.

Hamilton spoke about how people with mental illness can have their life expectancies reduced by 8 to 20 years compared with the average American. She attributed that to people making bad "lifestyle choices" such as eating too much, etc. There is, of course, some truth to that. Anyone with m.i. can benefit from better nutrition, better hydration, etc. That's a big duh.

And more power to Terminator girl, if all the riches she has give her the time and resources to be able to treat her body well, eat good foods, hire a personal chef and personal trainer, and so on. Whatever. That's Hollywood. And the rest of us live somewhere else.

What really pisses me off, however, is that King didn't ask her the obvious question about effects of meds on the bodies and brains of bipolars and others with mental illness. For example, he could've asked: "Linda, can you tell me about the metabolic syndrome that the recently-released CATIE study establishes is connected with the use of atypical antipsychotics?" Bet that would've made everyone in the room and Lilly's PR handlers damn nervous. That's because Lilly makes Zyprexa, an atypical, which has been connected with the deaths of multiple schizophrenics and bipolars.

So what's the metabolic syndrome? It's a fancy medical term that, as one psych researcher described it to me, describes a whole host of physical ailments that the long-term use of psych meds give rise to. Rapid and extreme weight gain, high blood pressure, heart problems and respiratory problems. That kind of shit.

This particular researcher--very well-known and respected in the profession--said "Zyprexa is the worst, everyone knows this" when it comes to screwing up peoples' bodies. Like other psych docs I've interviewed recently, he said that docs are really worried about the long-term effects of psych meds on the body.

I am fine with Hamilton going on television to describe what works for her, that BP is treatable and survivable and so on. I am glad that she is doing well and recovering.

I just want complete honesty when these pharma-sponsored quasi-infomercials hit the airwaves. Those of us with BP and other mental illnesses deserve that kind of honesty because we have been living with this shit for so long, we've been fighting back so damn hard, and, to be blunt, we are the ones paying the freight for all these over-priced psych meds.