Featured Image Credit: CBS
Topics: Celebrity, Mental Health, Drew Barrymore
Jess Hardiman
WARNING: CONTAINS CONTENT ABOUT SUICIDE IDEATION
Drew Barrymore has revealed she contemplated suicide on two occasions after feeling ‘desperate’, having opened up about the difficult periods in a new episode of her show.
Barrymore, 48, welcomed singer Madison Beer into her studio for the latest episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, where they discussed the star’s new memoir The Half of It.
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The book chronicles the past decade of Beer’s life in the spotlight, including ‘the ups, the downs, and the in-betweens that you won't see on social media’.
She discusses everything from what it’s been like dealing with mass hate online and the time her private photos were leaked online, right through to battling suicidal thoughts while making her debut album Life Support – and her journey to recovery since.
Barrymore began the interview by thanking Beer for speaking out, saying ‘everybody struggles’.
“I related on levels that are difficult to talk about,” the host said, asking Beer about how she had been through ‘attempts at escaping life’.
“I got to the point that things just caught up with me that I never had acknowledged, I never wanted to face,” her guest replied.
“I feel like I was sort of putting on this façade and living in this role I had been assigned for so long, and it all caught up to me one day.
“Then one day turned into weeks and months and honestly I feel like it was at least year that I was always in this sort of like suicidal ideation mindset. It felt very normal for me to think about that every day.”
Beer said she attempted to take her own life, but after being unsuccessful she realised she had something to ‘live for’.
When she said she actually made a second attempt, Barrymore replied: “Me as well. Twice. I don’t know if I really wanted to leave the Earth. I was so desperate that I did not know where else to turn.”
Beer said she started ‘doing a lot of inner child work’ and ‘healing the little girl’ in her.
“That was something I dove in head first,” she added.
“ I was like this has to be what I start with, I have to start at the beginning of where I feel like this pain is coming from.
“So I really took that seriously, I went on a couple mental health retreats. I did therapy every single day of the week. I just really committed to getting better, whatever better even means."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123