‘Stranger Things’ star David Harbour speaks up about ‘psychotherapy’

David Harbour just revealed he's recently started "intense psychotherapy" to work on his mental health.

The Stranger Things actor, who suffers from bipolar disorder, has been in therapy since he got sober in 1999, but he recently decided to switch up his mental health treatment.

"Only recently have I started intense psychotherapy, and it has made a world of difference in my treatment," he said in an interview with Future of Personal Health.

The 50-year-old continued, "There has been a great resurgence in the idea that psychotherapy, along with responsible medication, is key to remission. 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,” Harbour added.

According to America's National Institute of Mental Health, psychotherapy refers to a variety of treatments that aim to help a person identify and change troubling emotions, thoughts, and behaviours.

When he was 26, two years after getting sober, Harbour was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is characterised by extreme mood swings, from manic highs to depressive lows.

"There is a fundamental narcissism at the bottom of it all that makes me think I am the centre of all things, for good or for ill. My manic episodes are, of course, a manifestation of my own particular psychopathy," he explained, adding, "They all share those traits, but each episode has been linked to certain fixations I had at the time."

David Harbour's personal life has also been in the news in recent months following his 2024 split from Lily Allen after four years of marriage. She wrote about their marriage troubles on her explosive music album, West End Girl, last year.