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A few months after posting a troubling video on Facebook and threatening to assasinate President Barack Obama, Creed singer Scott Stapp has revealed he has bipolar disorder.
"I'm lucky to be alive," Stapp told Peopleof the struggles he's faced over the past year.
In November, Stapp posted a video on Facebook in which he claimed to be broke and homeless after his record label and others stole from him. The video came shortly after his wife of eight years, Jaclyn, filed for divorce saying Stapp disappeared from their home, threatened to kill himself, harm his family, which includes the couple's three children, and had been binging on amphetamines, meth and steroids.
"I'm as sober as can be," Stapp insisted in the video, slamming the "libelous" rumors against him. "Right now, I'm under some kind of pretty vicious attack."
The next month, Jaclyn called 911 to alert the authorities that Stapp thought he was a CIA agent on a mission to kill President Obama. Jaclyn and her sister plead with authorities to place Stapp in psychiatric hold, but police determined he had not demonstrated enough troubling behavior to warrant being hospitalized.
"I had a psychotic break that was brought on by alcohol and drug abuse," Stapp, who is now sober, told the magazine. "I was hallucinating. I drove around the United States for a month, following an angel that I saw on the hood of my car. In my delusional thinking, I thought my family was involved in ISIS, and that millions of dollars had been taken from me to support terrorism," he continued. "All of it was nonsense. I was out of my mind."
Stapp eventually enrolled in a dual diagnostic facility, where he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. "It made sense," Jaclyn said. "I definitely knew there was something going on for years, but I couldn't pinpoint what it was."
Jaclyn has continued to support Stapp throughout his recovery, which includes therapy and medication. And though Stapp initially struggled with the diagnosis, he is now dedicated to maintaining his mental health and sobriety. "It was hard to process," Stapp said of the diagnosis. "There's a stigma associated with it. But Jaclyn kept telling me, 'Embrace it. We love you.' It became a big sign of relief, because finally, we had an answer."