It’s been a year since Scott Stapp’s highly publicized downward spiral, but now, the Creed signer has regained control of his life, and he wants to keep it that way. He sat down with HuffPost Live on Thursday, Nov. 19, to discuss his bipolar diagnosis and how he’s moving on.
“I definitely have a healthy fear, and a healthy respect, for what I’m facing in my life and what we’ve overcome at this point,” the 42-year-old musician said. “I have a plan, you know. I live a healthy lifestyle. I make sure I get to sleep and do everything in my power to do everything I’ve been told to do to ensure I stay healthy and keep moving forward.”
And by his side to help him along is wife Jaclyn, whom he married in 2006. “We’re one. I couldn’t be where I am today without her.”
As for the breakdown he experienced late last year — documented by the haunting 15-minute video he posted to Facebook in November 2014, in which he claimed to be “under some kind of pretty vicious attack,” as well as the 911 call he made in which he claimed people were trying to kill him — the rocker says he hasn’t forgotten about them or that scary time in his life.
“It’s definitely been helpful to look back at those at the right time, at the right stage in my recovery, to kind of remind myself of the places I never want to go again,” said Stapp, who has also battled alcoholism. “They’re horrific for me to watch. I was so out of my mind, in another world, and so close to death. I almost lost everything I love and care about. They definitely serve a purpose to stay right in my rearview mirror on where I don’t want to go, so I keep doing what I’m supposed to do to keep moving forward.”
He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after entering a dual diagnostic facility, and he’s been on the mend since.
“The diagnosis enabled me to now know how to prevent that from happening through proper medical care, taking my prescriptions, a healthy lifestyle, my diet, and I also work a 12-step program,” Stapp told HuffPost Live. “Everything in my life is built around just staying healthy, and that’s what I have to do to fight the disease that I have.”
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