“The View” Ladies Grill Nadya “Octomom” Suleman on Her Sanity

Nadya Suleman, the Southern California woman best known in the media as Octomom, hit "The View" on Monday, where the ladies grilled her on a host of topics, including her mental stability.

Whoopi Goldberg was first to bring up the topic, asking Nadya if she understood why people think the mom of 14 is, "maybe… not quite all there."

"I've asked myself that for years too," Nadya laughed. "Everyone goes through life, some people in varying degrees… wearing certain clouded glasses.

"I was in denial for so many years thinking, 'Oh, I'm so smart, you know, I have a year more for my masters, right? I can do it all. I'm strong. I study all night long. I get straight A's and I'm taking care of my kids, six of them, no help. Not one nanny,'" Nadia continued. "So I'm delusionally thinking, 'Oh, I'm gonna keep going. Oh [I'll] have one more. What's one more from six?' OK, so this happens… It took this monolithic experience of having eight simultaneously to completely, completely alter, wake me up, and alter my mindset permanently."

Barbara Walters asked the question more directly of Nadya, a former psychiatric technician, saying, "Do you think you are all there?"

"I think, absolutely," Nadya began. "I want to answer it this way. In true, genuine, mental illness, we all know that if you are exposed to extraordinary stressors, in any way, you will most likely, not be able to tap inside yourself and pull out the reserves and pull out the resources and strengths you need to survive and continue to cope and to continue to stay afloat. If I were genuinely mentally unstable, I would [have] drowned from the beginning."

Nadya also addressed rumors that she recently lost the baby weight that came with being pregnant with eight children, in order to make money from posing on a tabloid magazine cover.

"No, I didn't. I had to build muscle," Nadya said.

But she admitted she struck the actual pose on the magazine cover — in a two-piece — to bring in income for her family of 14, which includes the octuplets and six other children.

"The main reason was obviously for revenue and I'm the first to admit it," she said of posing, not of losing the weight. "I have to admit I did it for the revenue. And I'm the first to admit it. I'm very, very open and honest about that."

The brunette said she is constantly thinking about how she will be able to support her family, and despite being shy, she realizes selling stories and video about her family helps out at the minute.

"Every hour of the day, every single day, I contemplate how I'm gonna do this… to be able to support them," Nadia explained. "It's a double edged sword. It's a catch 22. If I go back school — I had one more year left for my masters — I couldn't possibly make enough money to take care of them for a couple of months," she said of her children. "So, the only other option is to delve into other opportunities, [to] secure selective opportunities… In the past, [I] was being in the midst of survival mode, doing interviews, which I didn't want to do."


Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
VIEW THE PHOTOS: 'The View'
PLAY IT NOW: 'The View' Ladies To The Octomom: 'Maybe You're Not Quite All There'?
PLAY IT NOW: Robin Williams Goes Off On A Comedy Rant About Octomom (August 14, 2009)

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