Fisher Carries Burden

By Stephen M. Silverman

05/11/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

"Star Wars" actress, "Postcards from the Edge" author and "These Old Broads" screenwriter Carrie Fisher, 44, was helping to lobby Indiana lawmakers for a $31 million budget increase to improve the state's mental health and addiction services earlier this week when she posed a candid question to a group of Hoosiers who greeted her outside the Statehouse. "Are there a lot of mentally ill people here?" Fisher, who has been candid about her own mental health problems, asked at the podium. The crowd of nearly 2,000 -- as counted by the Associated Press -- erupted in a collective and resounding "Yes!" "Cool," replied Fisher, who then went on to discuss her own ongoing battle with bipolar disorder and prescription drug addiction. "Without medication," she said, "I would not be able to function in this world . . . Medication has made me a good mother, a good friend, a good daughter."