![\"Majella](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5149685_5_articleinline_majella_daniel_window2_upscaled.jpg\" "\\"Majella")
Majella with her husband, singer Daniel O’Donnell<\/p>\nMajella O’Donnell is a self-described \u201copen book\u201d. Her experience with mental health issues has been well documented, in large part due to her willingness to speak about it.<\/p>\n
Her first recollection of feeling \u201cdepressed\u201d, although she didn\u2019t know that is what it was at the time, was when she was 19 and her boyfriend of a couple of years had broken up with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just floored me\u201d, she recalls. At the time, she thought it was normal and that everyone felt like that when a relationship broke down. \u201cBut that feeling persisted for about a year \u2014 I was completely devastated and spent days in bed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually, though, O\u2019Donnell began to feel better and says she didn\u2019t experience another depressive episode until years later when her first marriage broke down. She says that she was terrified of being on her own, particularly with two young children.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think I could do it on my own. But I got through it. It was very difficult, but that was when I started to learn more about why I would get down or feel low.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was at this time that O\u2019Donnell was first diagnosed with \u201csevere depression\u201d and her GP prescribed anti-depressants. She also started counselling and read books to try to understand how her brain worked and why life experiences affected her a certain way. On medication and with a better insight into the inner workings of her mind, she began to feel better.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then I met Daniel, and we got married, and everything was fantastic,\u201d O\u2019Donnell says.<\/p>\n
Majella with her husband, singer Daniel O’Donnell<\/p>\n
But an out-of-the-blue experience two years after her 2002 wedding to the high-profile country singer followed. \u201cOne evening we were touring in London, and we were in a hotel room, and I can remember going to the bathroom at 3 o\u2019clock in the morning and just rocking. I thought, oh my god, I\u2019m going down this dark hole again.\u201d<\/p>\n
This time, though, O\u2019Donnell says there was no clear reason for how she was feeling: \u201cI was really happy. I didn\u2019t have any worries, and suddenly I\u2019m going down this big black hole again, and it really rocked me.\u201d<\/p>\n
On reflection, O\u2019Donnell puts the incident down to her having come off her anti-depressant medication. After she married Daniel, she says everything seemed to settle down and she was happy and content.<\/p>\n
\u201cNaively, I thought I didn\u2019t need the medication anymore, so I weaned myself off it,\u201d she explains. \u201cI would say I was fully off it about four weeks when that happened to me in London.\u201d<\/p>\n
After chatting with Daniel, who she says is incredibly supportive, she knew she needed to go back on the medication. \u201cI was 43 at that stage, and I knew that occasionally I would feel down or be really low. It would usually last for about a week or so, and then I\u2019d start to come out of it again. And it was that way for years including through my breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. But then in 2024 I went down, and I couldn\u2019t get back up.\u201d<\/p>\n
At that point, O\u2019Donnell says she knew she\u2019d reached the limit of what she could do herself and how much the medication could help her. She needed more help. During a visit with her GP, he asked her if she would consider residential care in a psychiatric hospital. \u201cI said I would. I would do anything to feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n
She entered St John of God University Hospital in Stillorgan, Dublin, where she stayed for 10 weeks. Following a structured programme, which involved therapy, art therapy, relaxation techniques, and breathing exercises, she acquired tools and insights that she still uses to this day to manage her mental health, or as she prefers to call it, \u201cmind health\u201d.<\/p>\n
Coping tools<\/p>\n
Today, it\u2019s these coping tools and tips, and living with depression for over 40 years, that O\u2019Donnell is pouring into a new series of video blogs on Instagram.<\/p>\n
In mid-June, she took to the social media platform and started releasing short videos where she chats about mental health, specifically depression and anxiety, linking it back to her journey and real-world advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like that available to people right now, and people need stuff that they can access in their own homes, from someone they consider a trusted voice,\u201d she says. \u201cMy hope is that people can just go in, click on the video and get something from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also sees the videos, which are self-recorded, as a way of de-stigmatising mental health struggles. By speaking so openly about her life, she hopes it can help people to recognise their experiences and know they\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n
When O\u2019Donnell posted the first video, she disabled comments as a pre-emptive move to protect herself. She says that even if she had 200 positive comments and one negative, that negative comment would stay with her.<\/p>\n