Meryll Soriano: 10 years after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder

Meryll stressed that mental health awareness teaches that those suffering from disorders should not just be branded as baliw (insane) just because it is the common connotation. (Photo: Meryll Soriano/Instagram)

After losing the light of some stars in the industry of show business – the celebrity life of cameras flashing and fans screaming – the fight to break the stigma of mental health came stronger into the limelight.

For Meryll Soriano who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder for 10 years, the 35-year old actress confessed that it is only now that she is able to speak out about her condition.

“You know we have to break the stigma,” she said in an interview with ABS-CBN and Philippines’ Ultimate Showbiz Hub (PUSH).

Meryll stressed that mental health awareness teaches that those suffering from disorders should not just be branded as baliw (insane) just because it is the common connotation.

“I am just hopeful na (that) this will start something, that this is a global phenomenon. It’s just not here, even in the another place, maybe a third world country, maybe a first world country, there is still stigma so I think there is a community now that is ready and it is so good to be part of that,” she said in the same interview.

Meryll was among the stars who joined the “Will You Still Love Me” art exhibit last July 14 – from “The Julia Buencamino Project.”

Julia is Nonie and Shamaine Buencamino’s daughter who passed away due to an apparent suicide back in 2015, and Meryll said that she personally knew her.

“I am very, very happy to create awareness and to share the inspiration and also the message that we are not alone,” she said, taking part in one of the said project’s initiative.

Though the Buencaminos chose to seal their lips on Julia’s passing, two years after, Shamaine was able to finally open up about it – at the same time, launching the project in memory of Julia and advocacy of mental health awareness.

[READ: Shamaine Buencamino opens up on Julia’s passing]

The first time Meryll opened up about her bipolar disorder was also in 2015, after Julia’s passing, admitting that she was diagnosed at the age of 27.