ET remembers Carrie Fisher's fearlessness while discussing her mental health struggles.
Carrie Fisher always had a way with words.
The beloved actress died on Tuesday after going into cardiac arrest while aboard an airplane on Friday, but her honesty and wisdom will never be forgotten. In particular, Fisher was admirably candid about her mental health struggles, which she opened up to ET about during our many interviews with her throughout the years. Fisher was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, battled manic depression, and also fought drug addictions.
In one memorable 2011 interview with ET, Fisher revealed the advice she would have given her younger self.
WATCH: Tina Fey Remembers Carrie Fisher's Honesty and 'Razor-Sharp Wit' in Heartfelt Statement
"You know, I don't think I could have told my younger self anything," Fisher admitted. "Get help -- there's not much else."
"Learn to say the words, 'I don't know,'" she added. "Mean them."
In another interview that year, Fisher talked to ET about being a trailblazer for discussing mental health.
"I don't think it's something to be ashamed of -- at all," she said about her own bipolar disorder diagnosis.
As for the treatment she received, Fisher was similarly frank about destigmatizing different forms of therapy. "I've been in therapy since I was 15 years old," she told ET in 1999. "Right now I visit with three different shrinks."
She also wasn't afraid to discuss her experience with electroshock therapy.
"It's actually really helped," she shared. "I don't have to take as much medication. And it's gotten a really bad rap. The only way it's shown in film is as a punishment."
Of course, Fisher was always protective of her daughter, 24-year-old Scream Queens actress Billie Lourd.
"The combination punch of drug addiction and manic depression is bad ... I have a daughter now, and I'm not really interested in exposing her to either one of these illnesses," she told ET in our 1999 interview.
Fisher's mental health advocacy wasn't lost on her many friends and fans. "We just lost a great ally for mental health and addiction," Margaret Cho tweeted on Tuesday. "Be strong, be as strong as she'd want you to be."
WATCH: George Lucas and Steven Spielberg React to the Death of Carrie Fisher
In 2008, Fisher actually wrote her own obit in her autobiography, Wishful Drinking, sharing how she would like to be remembered. The actress revealed an amusing conversation between her and Star Wars creator George Lucas, in which he argued that she couldn't wear a bra under her iconic white dress in the film because "there is no underwear in space," and that she would be strangled by her own bra.
"Now I think that this would make for a fantastic obit -- so I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra," Fisher hilariously wrote.
Watch below:
