Jill Janus, the vocalist of heavy-metal band, Huntress, has recently revealed that she was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Along with this, she has lived a life with multiple mental disorders.
At age 13, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and at age 20, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder. In an interview with Revolver, she states that her schizophrenia was becoming dangerous and explains her struggle with long-term memory loss. She says,
I was suicidal constantly. I was very suicidal early on in my life. Then in my mid-20s, it shifted to full-blown mania, where I can’t really remember much of my 20s. I can’t remember anybody from high school, either. I lost my long-term memory and can’t remember names, faces, or even places. We’ll be at a venue on tour and Blake will be like, ‘We’ve played here two times before,’ but I’ll have no recollection.
Not only has Janus struggled with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but also split-personality disorder. She tells Revolver,
My friends started to notice that I was developing these other personalities, almost as protection. That’s also why I started to change my name along the way. I was slowly not wanting to be who I was. That started to come into play at the age of 18 when I was going to music school in Manhattan. I took on this persona Penelope Tuesdae, which helped me go out into nightlife and conceal my other life as an opera singer. I really wanted to split the two lives. Penelope Tuesdae started to take on a life of her own.
During the time that Huntress was writing and recording a third album, she had a procedure done after noticing odd symptoms, and the doctor found early stages of uterine cancer. Because of this shocking diagnosis, she had a hysterectomy done in June. Although Janus has received such terrifying news, she is not allowing it to stop her. Her perseverance is made quite clear when she says, “I know I’ll survive. I’ve survived much worse.”
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