Academy Award Winning Actress Catherina Zeta-Jones has checked into a mental illness center after recently being diagnosed with bipolar II disorder.

While sources speculate the illness was brought on by this past year’s woes, including her husband Michael Douglas’ diagnosis and treatment of stage IV throat cancer, her step-son’s criminal activity, and the financial suits filed by Douglass’ ex-wife establishing her intent to reap royalties from 2010’s “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” it seems the craft of acting and the mental state of its practitioners should also be discussed.

The family members and close friends of devoted thespians frequently confess that they pray their loved ones will come back to them in their original form. Meaning, they’ll leave the idiosyncrasies of their characters on set, or on the stage, and return home, unscathed. But that’s not always the case. Good actors don’t impersonate their subjects. They undergo a serious transformation, that at times involves evoking personal memories from their own childhood, or using people and contexts in their real lives to conjure up raw emotions for feigning on camera.

Acting is mental. I wonder how much of Zeta’s illness is related to her craft…