Mental Disorders-The Silent Crisis(Part 2); Why Olympian Favor Hamilton Became Escort
“I didn’t want it to stop, I wanted more sex, I had a disease and I chose sex as a fuel to make me happy……..My bipolar was driven toward sex. It could have been driven towards drugs and alcohol, or gambling. I found sex was the biggest high to fuel my mania, which is common with bipolar people." - Suzy Favor Hamilton
In 2011, several years after retiring from a long career of professional running, 47 years old Suzy Favor Hamilton, a three-time Olympian, began began working for Vegas escort agency Haley Heston Private Collection as Kelly Lundy, Favor Hamilton had tried to conceal her real identity.
Her rates were advertised as $600 for one hour , $1,000 for two, $4,000 for 12 and $6,000 (£3,875) for 24 hours. She made hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars per hour as she worked semi-anonymously.
One of her clients wrote: 'She is worth every penny. I will go bankrupt before I stop seeing her. I hope no one else goes to see her, because I want her all to myself.' However one of her regular clients exposed her to a reporter and she lost her lucrative sponsorships deals.
She revealed that her husband, Mark Hamilton, knew about her double life and had tried to put an end to it.
How did Favor Hamilton a college graduate who has traveled the world competed at track and field’s highest levels, struck endorsement deals, and built a successful legitimate business made the quick transition into one of the most sorts after sex worker?
In 2005, after retiring from the track to have her daughter Kylie, Favor Hamilton struggled with post-partum depression but she quit her medication due to the side effects. She was also grieving from the loss of her brother Dan in 1999, who had also struggled with bipolar disorder before he committed suicide
In 2007 her doctor prescribed Prozac, and, a few years later, another doctor prescribed Zoloft. Used without mood stabilizers, Zoloft and other antidepressants can provoke manic symptoms in those with bipolar disorder. After going on Zoloft, Favor Hamilton writes in -“Fast Girl,” she became manic.
"I pretended I was injured and I remember thinking, again, 'You're the worst person in the world. Look at what you just did.' "
In 2011, several years after retiring from a long career of professional running, 47 years old Suzy Favor Hamilton, a three-time Olympian, began began working for Vegas escort agency Haley Heston Private Collection as Kelly Lundy, Favor Hamilton had tried to conceal her real identity.
Her rates were advertised as $600 for one hour , $1,000 for two, $4,000 for 12 and $6,000 (£3,875) for 24 hours. She made hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars per hour as she worked semi-anonymously.
One of her clients wrote: 'She is worth every penny. I will go bankrupt before I stop seeing her. I hope no one else goes to see her, because I want her all to myself.' However one of her regular clients exposed her to a reporter and she lost her lucrative sponsorships deals.
She revealed that her husband, Mark Hamilton, knew about her double life and had tried to put an end to it.
How did Favor Hamilton a college graduate who has traveled the world competed at track and field’s highest levels, struck endorsement deals, and built a successful legitimate business made the quick transition into one of the most sorts after sex worker?
How Undiagnosed Bipolar Disorder Drove Hamilton to ‘Hyper Sexuality’
In 2005, after retiring from the track to have her daughter Kylie, Favor Hamilton struggled with post-partum depression but she quit her medication due to the side effects. She was also grieving from the loss of her brother Dan in 1999, who had also struggled with bipolar disorder before he committed suicide.
But when her crippling symptoms continued the antidepressant prescribed for her wreaked further havoc.
What Is Bipolar Disorder? | Symptoms | Complications | Warning Signs | Emergency& Suicide Prevention |
Bipolar disorder is a lifelong illness. Episodes of mania and depression eventually can occur again if you don't get treatment. Many people sometimes continue to have symptoms, even after getting treatment for their bipolar disorder. | Mania Symptoms; Mania symptoms may include excessive happiness, excitement, irritability, restlessness, increased energy, less need for sleep, racing thoughts, high sex drive, and a tendency to make grand and unattainable plans. | Self-injury, often referred to as cutting, self-mutilation, or self-harm, is an injurious attempt to cope with overpowering negative emotions, such as extreme anger, anxiety, and frustration. It is usually repetitive, not a one-time act. | When a person's illness follows the classic pattern, diagnosing bipolar disorder is relatively easy. But bipolar disorder can be sneaky. Symptoms can defy the expected manic-depressive sequence. | Suicide is a very real risk for people with bipolar disorder, whether they're in a manic or depressive episode -- 10%-15% of people with bipolar disorder kill themselves. But treatment greatly lowers the risk. |
Depression Symptoms; Depression symptoms may include sadness, anxiety, irritability, loss of energy, uncontrollable crying, change in appetite causing weight loss or gain, increased need for sleep, difficulty making decisions, and thoughts of death or suicide. |
Table 1, show the symptoms, complications, warning signs and emergencies for Bipolar Disorder.
TYPES of BIPOLAR DISORDER | |
Bipolar I | A person affected by bipolar I disorder has had at least one manic episode in his or her life. A manic episode is a period of abnormally elevated mood, accompanied by abnormal behavior that disrupts life. |
Bipolar II | Bipolar II is similar to bipolar I disorder, with moods cycling between high and low over time. However, in bipolar II disorder, the "up" moods never reach full-on mania. |
Rapid Cycling | · Rapid-cycling is a term that describes having four or more mood episodes of mania or depression within in one year. Women appear more likely than men to have rapid cycling. A rapid-cycling pattern increases risk for severe depression and suicide attempts. Antidepressants may sometimes be associated with triggering or prolonging periods of rapid cycling. However, that theory is controversial and is still being studied. |
Mixed Bipolar | · In most forms of bipolar disorder, moods alternate between elevated and depressed over time. But with mixed bipolar disorder, a person experiences both mania and depression simultaneously or in rapid sequence; marked by high energy, sleeplessness, and racing thoughts, feelings of hopeless, despairing, irritable, and suicidal. |
Cyclothymia | Cyclothymia (cyclothymic disorder) is a relatively mild mood disorder. People with cyclothymic disorder have milder symptoms than in full-blown bipolar disorder. |
Table 2, show the several types of bipolar disorder; all involve episodes of depression and mania to a degree.
Hypomania and Mania in Bipolar Disorder
According to the Bipolar Disorder Health Centre, Bipolar mania, hypomania, and depression are symptoms of bipolar disorder. The dramatic mood episodes of bipolar disorder do not follow a set pattern -- depression does not always follow mania. A person may experience the same mood state several times -- for weeks, months, even years at a time -- before suddenly having the opposite mood. Also, the severity of mood phases can differ from person to person.
Hypomania is a less severe form of mania. Hypomania is a mood that many don't perceive as a problem. It actually may feel pretty good. You have a greater sense of well-being and productivity. However, for someone with bipolar disorder, hypomania can evolve into mania -- or can switch into serious depression.
The experience of these manic stages has been described this way:
Hypomania is a less severe form of mania. Hypomania is a mood that many don't perceive as a problem. It actually may feel pretty good. You have a greater sense of well-being and productivity. However, for someone with bipolar disorder, hypomania can evolve into mania -- or can switch into serious depression.
The experience of these manic stages has been described this way:
- Hypomania: At first when I'm high, it's tremendous ... ideas are fast ... like shooting stars you follow until brighter ones appear... All shyness disappears, the right words and gestures are suddenly there ... uninteresting people, things, become intensely interesting. Sensuality is pervasive, the desire to seduce and be seduced is irresistible. Your marrow is infused with unbelievable feelings of ease, power, well-being, omnipotence, euphoria ... you can do anything ... but somewhere this changes.
- Mania: The fast ideas start coming too fast and there are far too many ... overwhelming confusion replaces clarity ... you stop keeping up with it … memory goes. Infectious humor ceases to amuse. Your friends become frightened ... everything is now against the grain ... you are irritable, angry, frightened, uncontrollable, and trapped.
If you have periods of unusually high energy and high mood along with three or more of the following mania symptoms most of the day -- nearly every day -- for one week or longer, you may be having a manic episode of bipolar disorder:
- Needing less sleep in order to feel rested
- Talking very rapidly or excessively
- Distractibility
- Fast thoughts
- Tendency to show poor judgment, such as impulsively deciding to quit a job
- Inflated self-esteem or grandiosity -- unrealistic beliefs in one's ability, intelligence, and powers; may be delusional
- Reckless behaviors (such as lavish spending sprees, impulsive sexual indiscretions, abuse of alcohol or drugs, or ill-advised business decisions)
FAVOR HAMILTON CASE
"My bipolar was driven toward sex. It could have been driven towards drugs and alcohol, or gambling. I found sex was the biggest high to fuel my mania, which is common with bipolar people. ‘So you do crazier and crazier things, but you see no craziness in them,’ Favor Hamilton said.
She continues; "The whole entire world was watching me," Hamilton said of the 2000 Sydney Games, as her Olympic dreams were dashed. "That dream of having an Olympic medal was gone and instead of finishing the race, like most runners would, I told myself 'just fall' and I fell immediately, it just happened like that."
"I pretended I was injured and I remember thinking, again, 'You're the worst person in the world. Look at what you just did.' " Her self-worth on the floor, she and her husband Mark returned to Wisconsin to start a real estate business and a family but Hamilton's mood swings became epic. Her husband said he saw the anger in her for the first time.
 |
| Credits;Smoking Gun |
In 2011, feeling she was in a rut, Favor Hamilton persuaded her husband, Mark, to travel to Las Vegas to go skydiving and have a threesome with an escort for their 20th wedding anniversary. She found the encounter thrilling. "That was that light bulb moment in my head, 'Wow, why shouldn't I get paid for sex?' "
She convinced Mark that she should return, alone. A few months later, at forty-three, she approached the escort agency they had used in order to work for it. “Becoming a part-time escort myself made absolute sense,” she writes. Mark disapproved, but felt unable to stop her. After years of witnessing her depression,Hamilton said both Mark and her sponsors welcomed, at the time, her new enthusiasm. “Mark liked me when I was manic,” she said. “They all liked that energy.” The arrangement was meant to be discreet, though it didn’t remain so for long (Courtesy ABC News).
The Road to Recovery; How did Hamilton survive the shock and criticisms from her family, friends, fans and the media? What role did her husband play in her recovery? Find out details at the final installment of this inspiring story on achieving and maintaining a positive mental outlook despite all odds.
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