David Harbour worried his mental illness would cost him work as an actor.
The 43-year-old star was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in his 20s but didn’t speak publicly about his struggles until he found success as Jim Hopper in ‘Stranger Things’ because he worried about being viewed s unreliable.
He said: "As an actor, you’re worried about getting hired, but now I’m at a place where I can talk about this.
"Also, I’m in my forties, I may as well be myself, whether I get work or not."
And David hopes that by speaking candidly about his condition, he can offer support and inspiration to others going through the same struggles.
He said: "My biggest reason for getting into it was I imagined a mother of a kid who is taken out of school, diagnosed childhood bipolar.
"The mother feels it’s a death sentence, that their kid will never be part of society, that they’ll always be on the couch eating pizza and, at times in my life, I was that guy.
"So I want to say if you admire this profession, which you don’t have to, then I’m no different to that child.
"That’s what I want to share with those people because they suffer like my parents suffered."
The ‘Hellboy’ actor encouraged people to embrace what makes them "neuro-atypical".
He told Britain’s GQ magazine: "If I’m not OK, I’m at least contributing. I struggle on a daily basis.
"You try to normalise it, but non-normality is interesting too.
"Embrace your neuro-atypicality! Making it as if you’re the same as everybody else is a lie and it sticks in the craw of the mentally ill. Mental illness is a disease that’s widely misunderstood."
David Harbour worried illness would affect career
