What's Up With Lindsay Lohan?

"My mom is going to kill me for talking about sleeping with people," Lindsay Lohan recently told Elle magazine, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle. "But I don't want to put myself in the position where I'm in a monogamous relationship right now. I'm not dating just one person." Which, given some other reports of Lohan's love life, seems to be an understatement of Olympic proportions.

Okay, so the young lady (who is, after all, only 20 years old -- an age at which young woman are apt to get a little trampy) likes to sleep around. What's the big deal? Well, ordinarily I would think that a given person's sex life, even if they're a celebrity, is their own business. But when they discuss it publicly, and when it takes on more importance than what they do for a living, maybe it's time to take a look at it and try to figure out what's going on -- both with the person involved and with us. Why are we so interested by who Lindsay Lohan goes to bed with?

Take the following incident, reported at length by the (not necessarily reliable) National Ledger.com, which cites the (also not necessarily reliable) British press:

It seems a recent conquest of Lohan's was a Brit named Calum Best (don't ask me who he is -- he could have been the bellhop at her hotel for all I know). What interesting about this story is what is reported as Lohan's conduct when Best tried to leave the hotel room where he'd spent five nights shagging Lohan to attend to business:

Now the story really gets strange. When Best tried to leave her suite at London's Sanderson Hotel, Lindsay tried to stop him, reports the Mirror.
The 3am Girls Eva Simpson & Caroline Hedley report: When the Love Island Romeo tried to leave her suite at London's Sanderson Hotel in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Lindsay called some heavies and tried to stop him going.
Calum, 25, insisted he had a plane to catch - he was due in Belfast later that day to switch on the Christmas lights at City Hall. But when he told Li-Lo that he'd have to love her and leave her, she was having none of it.
***
Convinced he was off to meet someone else, the 20-year-old Herbie star called the hotel's security.
The girls "spies" claim: "Staff thought Lindsay wanted them to get rid of Calum - they couldn't believe they wanted help to keep him there. She was going crazy, demanding to know why Calum had to leave. She wasn't listening when he told her he had to work."She was convinced he was going to meet another girl behind her back and was determined to stop him leaving. In the end they managed to calm her down but she went to bed in a real strop, cursing Calum and saying she never wanted to see him again. He jumped into a car and sped off."

So what are we to make of this behavior? That she was inspired by "Sex and the City" to sleep around and is a wee bit needy -- as young women tend to be in situations like these? Or is something else going on?

What we know about Lindsay Lohan from her own admission is that she has problems with sex and shopping (her shopping binges are well documented). When you tell a mental health professional that a given person has a serious problem with both compulsive sex and shopping, light bulbs practically go off over their heads. Because that is a dead giveaway that the person involved has a specific psychological condition.

Could Lindsay Lohan be bipolar?

This is the definition of bipolar disorder, according to the website of the Mayo Clinic:

Bipolar disorder is characterized by an alternating pattern of emotional highs (mania) and lows (depression). The intensity of the associated signs and symptoms varies. Bipolar disorder can range from a mild condition to a severe condition, and there may be periods of normal behavior.
Manic phase
For many people, signs and symptoms in the manic phase may include:
Feelings of euphoria, extreme optimism and inflated self-esteem
Rapid speech, racing thoughts, agitation and increased physical activity
Poor judgment
Recklessness or taking chances not normally taken
Difficulty sleeping
Tendency to be easily distracted
Inability to concentrate
Aggressive behavior
Depressive phase
In the depressive phase, signs and symptoms include:
Persistent feelings of sadness, anxiety, guilt or hopelessness
Disturbances in sleep and appetite
Fatigue and loss of interest in daily activities
Problems concentrating
Irritability
Chronic pain without a known cause
Recurring thoughts of suicide

Does this describe Lindsay Lohan?

I greatly admire Lindsay Lohan as a performer, and think she's one of the most gifted actresses of her generation. But I find it disturbing when her Paris Hilton-esque escapades and self-destructive behavior gets more coverage than her work. And if, as I suspect, it's because she's suffering (as many actresses have over the years -- from Clara Bow and Vivien Leigh to Margot Kidder) from a psychological condition that can be treated, then the sooner she realizes it and does something about it, the better.

Tom Moran