Sinead O'Connor: Annie Lennox calls for support for singer following 'distressing' video
'She appears to be completely out on a limb and I'm concerned for her safety. Are there no close friends or family who could be with her to give her some loving support?' says Lennox
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Your support makes all the difference.Annie Lennox has called for support for Sinead O’Connor after the singer posted a video revealing she has wanted to kill herself for the past two years.
Fears have grown for the Irish songwriter since she posted a 12-minute video on her Facebook page tearfully explaining she has been “fighting for her life” and living in a Travelodge motel in New Jersey.
O’Connor, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, said she had felt alone since losing custody of her 13-year-old son and revealed she is suffering from three mental illnesses but has been left isolated.
The 50-year-old, who had a worldwide hit with “Nothing Compares 2 U” in 1990, said her doctor and psychiatrist were the only thing “keeping her alive”.
Fellow singer Lennox said she had been distressed by O’Connor’s video and questioned why the singer did not have close friends or family to help her when she was in such a difficult vulnerable position.
“I just watched this truly distressing call for help by Sinead O'Connor, from a motel room in New Jersey, where she says there's no one there to help her, with the exception of a psychiatrist and a doctor,” the Scottish four-time Grammy-winning artist said in a post on her Facebook page.
“I realise that Sinead has some serious mental health issues, but she appears to be completely out on a limb and I'm concerned for her safety,” she continued.
“Are there no close friends or family who could be with her to give her some loving support? It's terrible to see her in such a vulnerable state.”
O'Connor, who lost her mother when she was just 19, said:
“I’m fighting and fighting and fighting like all the millions of people.
“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.”
The singer, who has been married four times, is mother to four children from four different relationships and became a grandma for the first time in 2015. After the singer lost custody of her youngest child, she made suicide threats, telling Ireland’s Child and Family Agency they would have “a dead celebrity on their hands” if they refused to overturn their decision.
“I’m all by myself, there’s absolutely nobody in my life,” she told viewers. “I’m now living in a Travelodge motel in the arse-end of New Jersey.
“[No one] except my doctor, my psychiatrist – who is the sweetest man on earth who says I’m his hero – and that’s about the only f**king thing keeping me alive at the moment. The fact that I’m his bloody hero ... and that’s kind of pathetic.”
O'Connor said she had spent the last two years “wandering the world alone”.
“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****** ill and getting angry that no one would f****** take care of me,” she said.
“I'm a 5ft 4in little f****** woman wandering the world for two years by myself.”
The musician, who has recorded ten solo albums, has opened up about her struggles with suicidal thoughts in the past and has posted distressing videos on Facebook. In 2007 she told Oprah Winfrey she had been diagnosed with bipolar and tried to kill herself on her 33rd birthday.
In her recent video, she said she hoped that opening up about her mental health problems would help others in similarly vulnerable positions. She said she planned to get through and survive her latest crisis.
“I hope that this video is somehow helpful,” she said. “I know that I’m just one of millions and millions of people in the world that suffer like I do that don’t necessarily have the resources that I have.”
O’Connor sparked a police investigation and desperate search last June after she disappeared from a suburb of Chicago after going on a bike ride with friends. Alarm bells were raised about her well-being but she was found safe in the end.
For confidential support on mental health call the Samaritans on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or attend a local Samaritans branch.
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