Majella O\u2019Donnell has made a powerful plea to anyone experiencing mental health issues, as part of her appearance last night on the Late Late Show.<\/p>\n
She bravely spoke to host Patrick Kielty about her history of mental health issues, and her recent stay in a psychiatric unit in 2024.<\/p>\n
For Majella, mental health illnesses have been present for most of her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did have a rough patch in 2024, but mental health problems, i.e. depression, have been a part of my life for most of my life, certainly since my late teens I have battled with depression,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I have always managed to deal with it myself, I\u2019ve always managed to come out of my low points. I started taking medication in my mid-30s after my marriage breakdown which was very, very tough on me. I geniunely did not think I could go on when that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had two very young children, I was alone, it wasn\u2019t the life I had planned for myself, I saw myself marrying this person and growing old with them, and suddenly, not from my decision, it was all up in smoke and you\u2019re there with two young children thinking \u2018God, this is not what I wanted at all.’\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI got very low, very, very, very low, very low to a point that I just thought that I\u2019d like to get out of it all. I didn\u2019t think; \u2018God, I won\u2019t do that because I have two young children,\u2019 because I genuinely believed that they would be better off without me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Majella also opened up about her recent troubles, and her realisation that for the first time, she alone could not manage her own mental health without more assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2024 I got to a place that I thought I could not come out of.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore, when I got into those situations I would retreat, I might stay on the setee for days on end, Daniel would have to do the shopping, he\u2019d have to cook for himself, I was just like a vegetable on the setee but I just needed that time to myself, that time to recalibrate, just try to start and feel okay again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn\u2019t happen this time. I just was sitting in the corner, and I said: \u2018I can\u2019t do this anymore. I just cannot do this anymore, I\u2019m tired of dealing with it and I don\u2019t want to deal with it anymore.’\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel said \u2018Will you go up and see the GP?,\u2019 and I was like \u2018I\u2019m on medication, what can I do?’\u201d<\/p>\n
At that visit, her GP recommended a residential stay at a psychiatric unit to Majella for the first time, an option she had not even considered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI, actually, was delighted, because I thought (that) anything could help, because I know I\u2019ve given up, and I relinquished everything to the powers that be, doctors, psychiatrists, whatever \u2013 help me now because I can\u2019t help myself anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Majella detailed her stay, saying that she did not even appear out of her room in her residential treatment for three days \u2013 and that it took five weeks for her to phone her husband, Daniel, as she had \u201cnothing to say\u201d and was \u201cdead.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI sent a text, I said \u2018I love you all,\u2019 but the biggest thing (was) I (had) nothing to say to anybody, I (was) just dead. So please just give me the time to try and come back to life life again\u2026 I had no joy in my own grandchildren, in my own children.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt home, if you have any struggles \u2013 and I\u2019m purely talking about my experience \u2013 it was so worth doing, and if you are that person who\u2019s feeling really, really low, go to your GP, go to them, tell them how you feel, tell them what you need, and just give it up \u2013 I relinquished everything to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Majella then appealled directly to anyone who may currently experiencing their own difficulties they fear they cannot get out of, to reach out \u2013 and expressed her hope that the stigma around mental health illnesses may disappear altogether.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease God, in 20-30 years\u2019 time, maybe not in my lifetime, we will be talking about depression and mental health illness as if we were talking about cancer. There\u2019s no shame in it, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m happy to talk about it. It\u2019s not my fault.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t ever feel (that it\u2019s your fault). I\u2019ll go and tell anybody, \u2018Yes, I was in a psychiatric hospital!\u2019 Yep, I was \u2013 and they fixed me, and that\u2019s ok. Don\u2019t ever, ever feel shameful about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking down the camera and I\u2019m saying it to you all out there, never feel ashamed for having mental health problems, because we\u2019re human.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI come out and I talk about things like this, and I know I get the keyboard warriors, and I\u2019ve seen them and I\u2019ve read things, and they\u2019re horrible.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd to people like that I would say, you know, when you\u2019re critical to somebody on social media online, you\u2019re not criticising their opinions, you\u2019re criticising that person, and that person, without you knowing, may be just hanging on to life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may be very vulnerable\u2026 and your words \u2013 those words of \u2018She\u2019s looking for attention\u2019, all those things \u2013 they\u2019re not helpful, they\u2019re hurtful. So please, think twice before you comment on people\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNever feel ashamed for having mental health problems\u201d \u2013 Majella O\u2019Donnell\u2019s Late Late plea was last modified: February 7th, 2026 by Daniel Brennan<\/p>\n
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