O’Donnell was speaking before tonight’s episode of RTÉ show High Road, Low Road during which she and husband Daniel travel to the city of Zadar in Croatia.
O’Donnell (65) has suffered with depression since her late teens and has been on anti-depressant medication since her mid-30s.
Although managing to keep the illness at bay and normally able to get herself “out of a rut”, all semblance of a functional lifestyle dissolved in 2024 when depression reared its head again.
Returning her to “that dark old place” that she could not escape, O’Donnell said that she could not see a way out of it.
“I just felt I’ve had enough of this. I can’t do this any more. I really can’t. I’m just tired of it,” she said on the Oliver Callan show on RTÉ Radio 1.
It was after this decline in her mental health that she was referred to a psychiatric hospital by her GP, which she said “straightened” her out.
Majella O’Donnell with her husband Daniel. Photo: Mark Condren
News in 90 seconds, Tuesday January 20
“They changed all my medication. Obviously, you do a lot of therapy, and you go to mind development things that you do, and all sorts of things when you’re in there,” she said.
“It was very good, but I was completely burnt out when I went in. I mean, I don’t think I spoke to Daniel or my daughter or anybody for about five weeks when I went in. I could not even talk because I had nothing to say at all.”
She said that, upon entry into the hospital for psychiatric treatment, she “relinquished” herself to healthcare professionals.
“I was just sitting in a corner of the room just dead inside, almost,” she added.
O’Donnell recalled feeling “terrified” during her first moments inside the hospital.
“When I went in the first day, when I was sort of waiting in reception, if you like, I started saying: ‘I can’t do this. I can’t do this. No, I want to go home. I can’t stay here.’
“The nurses kind of came out and they were really, really nice and really calmed me down. I didn’t come out of the room for about three or four days.”
O’Donnell said she eventually gathered the strength to send a text message to Daniel, which she had struggled to do throughout her stay.
“I sent a text and I explained everything. I just said […] ‘I’ve nothing to say. I’m just lost. Please give me the time. I love you all very much’,” adding: “I’ll be back in contact with you when I feel able.”
Although she accepts that the depression never really goes away entirely, she is urging people to share their problems with somebody.
“Every time you feel it, you talk,” she said.
“That’s the thing is to talk and talk could just be ‘I’m in a bad place’, even if you don’t want to go into details or anything, but just to say ‘I need help’.”
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