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Sinead O’Connor is ‘safe … not suicidal’ after posting troubling video online

Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, shown in a 2014 file photos, emotionally pleaded for help and opened up about her struggles with mental illness in a rambling Facebook video posted on Aug. 3, 2017. A follow-up Facebook said to be made on OConnors behalf late Monday said the singer was OK. (Antonio Calanni / AP)
By Christie D’Zurilla Los Angeles Times

Siniad O’Connor’s mental health drama continues to play out on Facebook, with an unidentified person assuring fans late Monday that the “Nothing Compares 2 U” singer was being taken care of after posting a troubling video begging her exes and children to come get her and take care of her.

“I am posting at Sinead’s request, to let everyone who loves her know she is safe, and she is not suicidal,” an unnamed person wrote Monday night on the same Facebook page where O’Connor posted the startling video Thursday. The singer is “surrounded by love and receiving the best of care,” the person said, and she “asked for this to be posted knowing you are concerned for her.”

O’Connor, 50, has a history of going public with her personal struggles.

In the profanity-laden video, which she said she was making on the chance it would help someone who doesn’t have her resources, a tearful O’Connor said she was living alone in a motel “in the arse end of New Jersey” with nobody to lean on except her psychiatrist.

Stating that she was suffering from three mental illnesses, she accused her children and a couple of her exes of not caring about her well-being. In past interviews, she has said she was misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2011, attempted suicide in 2012 and suffers from depression and PTSD.

O’Connor has been married four times and has two children with two ex-husbands, plus two more with ex-boyfriends. Her musical contributions along the way have gotten somewhat lost under the weight of her struggles.

“I gave so much love in my life and I just can’t understand how a person can be left alone …” she said in the newest video. “Mental illness, it’s a bit like drugs, it doesn’t (care) who you are, and what’s worse, the stigma doesn’t (care) who you are, and suddenly all of the people who are supposed to be loving you and taking care of you are treating you (badly).

“Then when you’re angry or you’re hurt because they’re doing it, it’s like a witch hunt,” she went on.