In the days leading up to Elisa’s death she was showing very odd behavior. Elisa Lam had recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder which is defined by the National Institute for Mental Health as, “a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.” This disorder can cause people to feel depressed and can also cause episodes of psychosis (National Institute of Mental Health). One of the first signs of the disorder are seen in her blog posts. Elisa regularly updated her blog sharing her experiences with the disorder. It is purported that one of her post said, “Depression sucks. I have no control over my emotions. I will be angry for two minutes and sad again. I will be happy for half an hour and then emotional again. So far all I’ve done is lay on my bed and watch episodes of Chopped. I’m just waiting for it to pass (theghostdiaries.com).”

Another sign of this disorder was when she was at the hotel with her friends. Elisa was originally rooming with her friends at the Cecil but they requested for her to be moved to a different room because of her odd behavior (True Time Garage). The most telling event of her mental disorder was surveillance footage of her in the elevator of the hotel just before her death. She is seen pressing all of the buttons then looking in and out of the elevator as if she was hiding from someone. She then steps out and starts talking like she were talking to another person and using hand gestures but nobody appears to be there (YouTube). The footage was analyzed by a body language specialist named Doctor Jack Brown who never once saw fear in the body language of Elisa. As explained in the podcast True Crime Garage, throughout the footage she shows signs of shows playfulness, sexual arouse, and anxiety but never once seems as though she is worried about her safety (True Time Garage). If she was possibly talking to her murderer wouldn’t she be showing fear? It seems more likely that Elisa was hallucinating from her disorder and was talking to something that wasn’t actually there. This would explain her odd behavior with her roommates in the previous days and the posts explain clear signs of how the disorder was already affecting her.