Harbour, who played Jim Hopper on “Stranger Things,” talks mental health in a resurfaced interview.

David Harbour underwent ‘intense psychotherapy’ for bipolar disorder: ‘There is not a cure-all formula’

Harbour, who played Jim Hopper on "Stranger Things," talks mental health in a resurfaced interview.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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on April 22, 2026 7:53 p.m. ET

David Harbour attends the 'Stranger Things' premiere in November 2025. Credit:

Charley Gallay/Getty

*Stranger Things* star David Harbour has been very open about being diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 25, with comments from a past interview resurfacing this week.

"There has been a great resurgence in the idea that psychotherapy, along with responsible medication, is key to remission," the actor, 50, is quoted as saying by Mediaplanet publication *Investing in Arts & Education* in an article dated September 2022.

An expanded version of that interview was published as an undated article on Future of Personal Health, a website produced by content marketing agency Caybon via its Mediaplanet group), which has been recirculating as new.

*(Editors note: After **'s initial publication of this story in January, a rep for Harbor who had not been working with the actor in 2022 told EW on Thursday that the star does not recall participating in this interview. A rep for Mediaplanet tells us the interview was "originally done for an online-only Mental Health campaign we ran in 2018" and that a former editor "confirmed that she received emailed interview responses from David via his publicist for that Q&A.")*

In both Mediaplanet pieces, Harbour is quotes as saying "I have not had a manic flare-up since I started psychoanalysis with a good therapist. Medication alone is only half the battle. There is not a cure-all formula, there is only hard individual work. If you can’t afford therapy, find groups that don’t charge or don’t charge much. You will improve."

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Harbour, who starred as Jim Hopper on all five seasons of *Stranger Things*, is quoted as saying he'd been working with a therapist behind the scenes while filming the recently concluded Netflix hit.

"I have been in therapy since I got sober in 1999," Harbour is quoted in the piece. "When I quit drinking, it forced me to confront a lot of demons that rose to the surface."

David Harbour plays Jim Hopper on 'Stranger Things'.

At the time, he's quoted as saying, he had made what had proven to be a helpful change: "Only recently have I started intense psychotherapy, and it has made a world of difference in my treatment."

Harbour is quoted describing what a manic episode looked like for him.

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"Thought becomes disordered and chaotic. Things that have no meaning became meaningful. Names, numbers, and colors acquire a twisted symbolism," the piece quotes. "There is a fundamental narcissism at the bottom of it all that makes me think I am the center of all things, for good or for ill. My manic episodes are, of course, a manifestation of my own particular psychopathy. They all share those traits, but each episode has been linked to certain fixations I had at the time."

In addition to *Stranger Things*, Harbour has appeared in movies including *Thunderbolts**, *Black Widow*, and *Revolutionary Road*. He has recently been in the news for his 2025 split with singer Lilly Allen, which turned messy, and rumors of a rift with his *Stranger Things *costar Millie Bobby Brown, although the two later shot those down.**

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