Jack Dee claims therapists laughed him when he attempted to pour his heart out over his battle with depression.
The comedian, 60, says medical professionals were unable to keep a straight face due to his demeanor despite his troubles meaning psychotherapy ‘did not work’ for him as he weathered his mental health battles.
He told The Sun: ‘I have tried having psychotherapy but there is something about my face. They start corpsing [theatre slang for laughing] when I start talking…
‘I could be telling them my problems and then they start giggling and have to apologise. I thought, “this isn’t working”.’
Unfortunate: Jack Dee, 60, claims therapists laughed him as he poured his heart out to them while struggling with depression (pictured last month)
The funnyman went on to insist celebrities should not be so quick to label substance misuse issues as addition having battled excessive drinking himself in the past.
Jack explained: ‘Once you put a label on a thing like that you are empowering it. It’s a very loaded word. If it is an addiction you are an addict and we can’t help it…
‘A bad habit is much easier to deal with than an addiction, just mentally.’
The performer explained how he’d seen a hypnotherapist in a bid to stop smoking and the therapist implored him to stop labelling himself an addict, with the professional telling him ‘you’ll stop when you’re ready’.
He told The Sun : ‘I have tried having psychotherapy but there is something about my face. They start corpsing when I start talking’ (Jack pictured in 2017)
He said two weeks later he had taken his last puff of a cigarette after putting less pressure on himself.
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Jack says he struggled in lockdown as he was unable to continue with his comedy, so he wrote a titled What Is Your Problem? to fill the time.
And, as part of the tome, he insists people should not embrace failure as a way overcoming it.
The star insists he is aware failure is a part of life but he feels it should not be normalised or celebrated.
He admitted: ‘I have failed in so many areas and I’m not proud of it. I’m not going to go round saying, “It’s great. I botched that up”.’
Breaking habits: The star went on to explain how he’d overcome his bad habits after dropping the label of ‘addict’, saying he stopped smoking within two weeks (pictured last month)
The star has always been candid about his mental health battles.
In 2011, he detailed: ”I have had issues with depression all my life, and it’s probably true to say there was a tendency towards it even when I was very young, during my schooldays…
‘There was often – and this is quite common with comics – a sense of not feeling as if I belonged anywhere.
‘At school, I never really fitted in. At the time, I probably blamed the school, but I realise now that it was more likely to be me. It would have been the same in any school.
‘After school, things were a bit grim for a while. I was really lost at one point. I always had this feeling that there was this strong sense of vocation, if you like, I just didn’t know what it was.’
Then: The star has always been candid about his mental health battles (pictured in 2017)
Source: Daily Mail
