00:00 So, officially, it was sleep apnea leads to cardiac arrest.
00:05 Right.
00:06 But you don't really think that's what killed your sister.
00:08 Well, you know, a lifetime of medications,
00:13 starting when she was a young teenager,
00:16 was certainly a contributor.
00:19 You can't ignore the fact that when Kara was very young,
00:22 she had sleep issues, and back in those days,
00:26 you know, the doctors prescribed small, mild sleeping medications.
00:31 And then when we were teenagers,
00:32 the dentist gave Kara some Percodan.
00:35 Percodan.
00:37 Percodan. Well, for your teeth surgery or whatever,
00:40 which I guess was common in that time.
00:41 In fact, I had my wisdom teeth pulled.
00:43 They gave me my Percodan.
00:44 They gave me Percodan, and I hated it.
00:46 And Kara was like, "Oh, well, if you don't want that,
00:48 I'll take it."
00:49 And I was like, "Okay."
00:52 Because, you know, what do we know, right?
00:53 So, you know, she began with those kind of medications.
00:57 We also got high together,
00:59 like many teenagers did in the '60s and '70s.
01:02 I just never progressed the way she did.
01:05 She kept finding more and more interesting drugs
01:08 that she wanted to try.
01:09 I didn't find it that interesting.
01:11 I liked to be in control.
01:12 She liked to be out of control, or in control,
01:16 or out of control at her control,
01:19 meaning as you take things.
01:20 So what ended up occurring is that
01:23 she had a lifetime of drugs.
01:24 When she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder,
01:27 the doctor stepped in with psychotropic drugs.
01:30 Then she ends up in rehabs, of course, for drug abuse.
01:35 They give other drugs in that.
01:37 And now all of a sudden, you have this myriad of drugs.
01:40 And back in the day,
01:41 we were talking about the California diet is pretty famous.
01:44 My mother did a film called "Behind the Cantalabra,"
01:47 where they're, you know,
01:48 talk about this literally a diet of pills.
01:51 And that's what happened.
01:52 You know, Carrie was given a diet of pills,
01:54 whether they be opioids
01:56 or other types of psychotropic drugs
01:58 to control the bipolar.
02:00 I never saw so many pills at different times in her life.
02:04 Was this the norm?
02:05 Or were these doctors playing to the fact
02:08 that your mother was world famous, iconic,
02:10 your sister's famous?
02:11 They just wanna be involved in managing them,
02:14 and they became pill mills.
02:16 Well, in the early days, of course,
02:18 that was the trend.
02:19 But later on in the last, say, 15, 20 years,
02:22 there was a consciousness that perhaps, you know,
02:25 you shouldn't just give an unlimited amount of pills.
02:27 As people died, when John Belushi died
02:29 and other people died, it scared people.
02:32 Of course, Michael Jackson scared people.
02:35 You know, my sister would see these things
02:37 and be scared by that.
02:39 And sometimes that would shock her
02:41 into staying sober for periods of time.
02:44 But she was never able to be sober,
02:45 and it partly had to do with her bipolar disorder.
02:48 And, you know, people don't understand
02:50 this mood swing thing.
02:51 You know, one minute you're,
02:53 she named her moods, Roy and Pam,
02:55 rollicking Roy, so when she's on the high end
02:57 of the roller coaster, it's rollicking Roy.
03:00 When you're depressed, it was Pam, sediment Pam.
03:03 And she would, and in between is when she lives
03:07 in our realm, the normal realm, so-called normal realm.
03:10 But some of her most creative times in life
03:13 were in that journey.
03:15 So the writing that you see, all these books
03:17 and all these amazing quotes that Carrie comes up with,
03:20 were generally happening during these journeys
03:23 of mood swings.
03:25 - So just in terms of the tales of warning,
03:27 you were with Belushi the night he died.
03:29 - Right.
03:30 - But that didn't scare her enough to say,
03:34 this is not the right path forward?
03:36 - Yeah, every time it scared her, every time.
03:39 Every time one of these things would happen.
03:41 Her best friend died at her house.
03:45 And it scared her to want to be sober again.
03:49 But we went through so many rehabs together
03:51 that clearly one could say she could have taught
03:53 the rehab easily.
03:56 I mean, I'm not kidding.
03:57 She was, first of all, a very intelligent young lady,
03:59 and yet, and she knew the material backwards and forwards,
04:01 it had nothing to do with it.
04:03 It had to do with this overwhelming mood swings
04:07 that were uncontrollable, and a desire,
04:10 no one knows what it's like to live inside that body.
04:12 None of us know what it's like to be inside
04:14 of our loved one that's going through this.
04:16 Only they know.
04:17 They tell the doctor, this is what I'm feeling.
04:20 Doctor says, let me adjust your medication.
04:22 But that's not always there 24/7,
04:24 so they want to adjust their own medications.
04:27 - Looking back on your sister,
04:29 what is it that made America fall in love with her?
04:32 Why do people adore herself?
04:34 - I think just incredible, brutal honesty.
04:38 Where, she used to say, our family wears our underwear
04:41 on the outside of our clothing.
04:43 (laughing)
04:45 And that's how she lived her life.
04:46 (audience applauding)
04:47 - Well, your family's left a mark,
04:49 not just on Hollywood, but the entire planet.
04:51 It is wonderful to hear you open up,
04:54 as they did, about their lives.
04:56 And I think My Girls is brilliantly written.
04:58 - Oh, I appreciate it, thank you.
04:59 - Kudos to you for doing it.
05:00 And by the way, pick up a copy of Todd's memoir,
05:02 share it with folks you care about.
05:03 It's called My Girls, a lifetime with Carrie and Debbie,
05:06 an honest portrayal.
05:07 We'll be right back.
05:09 Thank you for watching.
05:10 Don't forget to subscribe and turn on notifications
05:12 so you never miss out on new videos to live the good life.
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