How does a person go from pushing her body to the limit of being an Olympic athlete to selling that same body as a high class call girl in Las Vegas? It seems like a stretch to think that this would happen to someone, but it did. This is how Suzy Favor Hamilton went from a track and field star to an escort in Sin City. Is it truly mental illness or something stranger?
You would think that someone with her status would be immune from the downfall of her own mind, but she wasn’t. Her Bipolar Disorder took over her life when she was in her early 40’s, even though looking back she could tell that she was as she puts it, “running from madness” her entire life.
One of the biggest symptoms of a manic phase of her disorder is categorized as “hypersexuality.” That basically means that you want to have sex all the time. The way that Suzy choice to deal with this unusual high was to sell her body. At the time she viewed this new life away from her husband, Mark Hamilton and their young daughter as her chosen fantasy life. She found it exciting that men would pay her for sex. Yet, it’s hard to see her sexually perverse behavior as a symptom of her illness. Maybe she just wanted to cheat on her husband. Or could she possibly be gay?
After the birth of her daughter in 2005, she was diagnosed with Postpartum Depression, and put on antidepressant medication. This triggered her mood to shoot sky high into a mania phase for the first time. It also caused her to do things, and behave in a way she hadn’t ever been before that were totally out of her character.
Loose, free, sexually charged, and ready to take on the world, she talked her husband into a threesome for their 20th anniversary while they were in Las Vegas on a vacation. A threesome with a woman. This kicked off her insane interest in sex with escorts, and eventually becoming one herself. $500 an hour was her given rate as “Kelly Lundy” with many of her clients thinking she was younger than her years since she was in such great shape from her years of being a top athlete.
It also caused her to do things, and behave in a way she hadn’t ever been before...
Eventually in January of 2013 she was finally diagnosed with the help of her husband, and a team of dedicated doctors. It took another year to get her mania under control. Now she tries to live a quieter life with her family, doing yoga, and healing her mind with the right prescription drugs to keep her disorder at bay. Her new memoir just came out entitled, “Fast Girl” and detailed her time as an Olympian having competed in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 games, being a mother, and dedicating her whole heart to her marriage. Hopefully going forward Suzy will be able to experience all that life has to offer in a healthy and happy way. She describes writing the book as “therapeutic” to come out in such an honest way about her mental health. Her brother, who committed suicide in 1999 was also suffering from Bipolar Disorder so it’s clear that sometimes this terrible disease affects multiple people within a family.
It’s also fairly remarkable that Mark and Suzy are still together at this point. Can you imagine staying with someone who boldly cheated on you many, many times? They now have been married for 25 years, and try to just take their life together one day at a time keeping in mind that Suzy will have “triggers” going forward that can make her illness worse. So they are mindful of that fact. Her husband's knows she might cheat again!
Maybe the true hero of this story is her husband, who chose rather to focus on keeping Suzy’s disease under control, and not abandoning her during the rough time. He truly took his vows to her seriously when they wed in 1991, “in sickness and in health” really meant something to him. Brave man. Either that or he is married to someone who might not be interested in him sexually.