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The Death of Billy Miller Due To Bipolar Depression is Important — Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents
I will always remember Billy Miller, an actor who recently died from suicide while struggling with bipolar depression. He was 43.
Miller was an actor, mostly known for his complicated character soap opera roles. Most notably, he played Billy Abbott on The Young & The Restless and then both Jason Morgan and Drew Cain on General Hospital. Miller won multiple awards for these roles. And while not the only actor in any of them, he left an indelible imprint of each of them, setting the bar high for others.
Billy Miller died on Friday, September 13, 2023 in Austin, Texas. The cause was death by suicide, according to his family. Miller lived with bipolar disorder and it is believed he was in a depressive episode at the time of his death.
As a person who also lives with bipolar disorder, my heart has a special ache for Billy Miller. Bipolar depression is absolutely hideous and incredibly lethal. Someone with bipolar has a 30 percent chance of attempting suicide over the course of their lives.
One popular and damaging misconception is that the bipolar depression is a reasonable tradeoff for the creative high. Not so, not at all. And the more we pedal that mythos, the most people are likely to not follow their…