The official cause of Carrie Fisher’s death is cardiac arrest due to sleep apnea but Todd Fisher explains why he believes there was more at play in his sister’s untimely passing.
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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.
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