Sinead O'Connor pleads for help in tearful Facebook video
Sinead O'Connor is "receiving the best of care" after talking about her mental illnesses and pleading for help in a tearful video on Facebook. The Irish singer recorded the video from a motel room in New Jersey and said she suffers from "three mental illnesses." She also slammed her family, saying she was entirely alone in the world except for her doctor.
"I gave so much love in my life and I just can't understand how a person could be left alone and I want everybody to see what it's like," she said as she cried. "That's why I'm making this video."
O'Connor also claimed that strangers on Facebook are kinder to her than her family, saying, "All the people who are supposed to be loving you and taking care of you are treating you like s**t."
She said that she was being "punished" for being mentally ill, "specifically for being suicidal."
The "Nothing Compares 2 U" singer criticized her adult children and fathers in particular, saying: "Nobody will take care of me ... All these big hairy men who are supposed to be my family are so scared of the little woman sending them angry emails."
"I'm fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting -- like all the millions and millions that I know I'm one of -- to stay alive every day," she added. "Which I'm doing because I love the people who are doing this to me. I'm not still alive for me. If it were for me, I'd be gone straight away back to my mom."
O'Connor said she was posting the video from the Travelodge in South Hackensack. South Hackensack Police Capt. Robert Kaiser told the AP Tuesday that officers conducted a welfare check, but O'Connor was not in her room. He added that she is no longer at the motel, and police do not know where she is currently staying.
On Tuesday, a message was posted from O'Connor's Facebook page that said, "Hi everybody, I am posting at Sinead's request, to let everyone who loves her know she is safe, and she is not suicidal. She is surrounded by love and receiving the best of care. She asked for this to be posted knowing you are concerned for her. I won't respond to any questions, so please understand. I hope this comforts those of you were concerned."
O'Connor's struggles with mental illness have been very public. In May 2016, police in Wilmette, Illinois searched for the singer after she wrote a cryptic note on Facebook and went out for a bike ride. A concerned doctor called police and asked them to perform a well-being check. In November 2015, she was hospitalized after she posted what appeared to be a suicide note on Facebook and took an overdose.
The singer has talked openly before about her bipolar diagnosis, which she received more than a decade ago. She spoke with Oprah Winfrey in 2007 and said that she had struggled with anxiety and suicidal thoughts before her diagnosis, and that while medication was helping her, "it's a work in progress."
