Suzy Favor Hamilton is best known as a three-time U.S. Olympic runner.

Her life after running included a successful career in real estate, but she was struggling in private. A little more than a decade after she competed in the 2000 Olympics, Hamilton was working as one of the top adult escorts in Las Vegas, and around the world.

After a misdiagnosis of depression, and wrong medications, her search for happiness led her to Las Vegas, leaving her husband and young daughter behind in Wisconsin.

“Something changed in me, pretty quickly, where I was feeling on top of the world,” explained Favor Hamilton. “I felt my inhibitions sliding away.”

Suzy Favor Hamilton: Long journey to mental health

Three-time Olympian Suzy Favor Hamilton talks about her double life and road to recovery.

It wasn’t until her secret, double life was publicly outed, and her eventual diagnosis of bi-polar disorder, that Favor Hamilton was able to begin a stable process of recovery.

In her recently released autobiography, Fast Girl: A Life Spent Running from Madness, Favor Hamilton chronicles her journey, in hopes of inspiring others struggling with bi-polar disorder, to take control of their lives by utilizing the power of the mind.

“What I’ve decided is, the negative people, educate them,” Favor Hamilton said. “I get my word out, my message, and they can have their opinion and do what they want with it.”

Suzy Favor Hamilton joined May Lee in our Los Angeles studio and shared her story.