Tuesday morning on MSNBC, Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist were treating Charlie Sheen’s latest out-of-control escapades as a joke, but his co-host Mika Brzezinski kept insisting that Sheen is in serious trouble and needs psychiatric help.
Mika’s right.
Sheen claims he’s now drug-free. If he’s not on drugs — and the Two and a Half Men star’s penchant for cocaine is legendary — then his outrageous behavior and statements in a series of interviews must be viewed as symptomatic of mental illness. In recent days:
On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, Brzezinski mentioned bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression) as a likely diagnosis, and Sheen exhibits many symptoms of being in a manic phase. Los Angeles Times media critic James Rainey said TV news networks are “aiding and abetting” Sheen’s “epic meltdown,” a spectacle he called “nauseating.” It is certainly no longer a laughing matter. Sheen’s popularity helped him amass nearly a half-million Twitter followers within hours of joining the microblogging site Tuesday afternoon. But if Sheen’s downward spiral into madness continues much further, all those people may soon be following a corpse.