Olivia O’Leary opens up about struggle with depression

Broadcaster Olivia O’Leary has described how she would miss her stop on the train because she could not motivate herself to stand up and get off during past struggles with depression and anxiety.

"It isn't until you've been through the hell and isolation of depression and anxiety that you have any idea of what it's like to what it takes to get over it," she said on RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime.

“It’s happened to so many of us. It happened to me in my 20s. I remember a full year when I didn’t care whether I got up in the mornings.

“I remember sitting on the train and missing my stop because I couldn’t motivate myself to stand up and get out. I didn’t care where the train was going to take me or where I’d end up – and I ended up in some strange places.

“But mostly I ended up alone in my room. I was lucky because somebody who loved me stepped in and got my psychiatric help. With the right drugs and some therapy I recovered. But, still, I’m wary of it. I know it could happen again.”

Ms O’Leary called on the next government to allocate the necessary resources to mental health as well as for greater public dialogue on the subject.

“The silence that surrounds mental health has insured that it has remained the Cinderella of the health service . . .

“Attitudes have changed today but because we still don’t want to talk about mental illness we can’t argue for it to get the funding it deserves.”