David Harbor has just revealed that he recently started ‘intense psychotherapy’ to work on his mental health.
The Stranger things actor, who suffers from bipolar disorder, has been in therapy since he got sober in 1999, but he recently decided to change his mental health care.
“Only recently did I start intensive psychotherapy, and it has made a world of difference in my treatment,” he said in an interview with Future of Personal Health.
The 50-year-old continued: “There has been a major resurgence in the idea that psychotherapy, along with responsible medication, is the key to remission. I haven’t had a manic flare-up since I started psychoanalysis with a good therapist.”
“Medication alone is only half the battle. There is no silver bullet, there is just hard individual work,” Harbor added.
According to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, psychotherapy refers to a variety of treatments that aim to help a person identify and change troubling emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.
At 26, two years after getting sober, Harbor was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is characterized by extreme mood swings, from manic highs to depressive lows.
“There’s a fundamental narcissism underlying it all that makes me think I’m the center of all things, for better or for worse. My manic episodes are obviously a manifestation of my own particular psychopathy,” he explained, adding, “They all share those traits, but each episode is linked to certain fixations I had at the time.”
David Harbour’s personal life has also been in the news in recent months following his 2024 divorce from Lily Allen after four years of marriage. She wrote about their marital problems last year on her explosive music album, West End Girl.
