Comedian and actor PJ Gallagher has admitted he was afraid he would lose his job when he was admitted to St. Patrick's Mental Hospital after suffering a severe breakdown with his mental health.
The 47-year-old Radio Nova presenter opened up about his battle with depressive anxiety on RTE’s The Late Late Show in October last year.
He revealed he was admitted to St. Patrick's Mental Hospital in December 2021 to receive treatment and remained there until March 2022.
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PJ said that before he went into hospital he was concerned about what taking the time out of work would mean for his job on Radio Nova, where he co-presents the weekday breakfast show 'Morning Glory'.
"I was in St Pat's for 11 weeks, I thought I was going in for four," he told The Six O'Clock Show on Virgin Media TV.
"I was there with my boss, because I was just so afraid of losing my job, so I went in to Kevin in [Radio] Nova and I was like 'It's going to be four weeks, worst case scenario.'
"And then I'm ringing him at six [weeks] going 'Another two weeks' and it was another two and another two."
However, PJ said his stay at St. Pat's was hugely beneficial for him and Radio Nova were supportive, saying: "It was an amazing place and the workplace stuck with me so well."
Speaking on the show, he then recalled how his mental health had been deteriorating so badly that he reached breaking point.
"I was going through the summer and it just started going downhill rapidly," he said. "I did the sort of man thing where, you know, 'It'll be grand and I'll be alright and just if you can just get through this week or this month'.
"But it just progressively got worse and worse and worse and worse to the point where psychologists were on the phone every two days and they were saying 'you're just gonna have to get into hospital, we've tried so much at this point'.
"I was on a lot of sedatives at this point and I was really all over the place. And then it's hard to say but I had one moment where I just thought I just literally cannot take anymore."
PJ said it was after a late-night phone call to a friend that he accepted he needed to seek hospital treatment and said it was the "best thing" he's ever done.
"I'm very lucky I had my friend Stephanie to ring and say you know 'I don't think I'm going to get through the end of the day', I remember saying and she had [previously] sent me a message that said 'No time is too early, no time's too late, I'm always here for your pal I love you, whatever you need'.
"So I rang at four o'clock in the morning I went up to her house and she took me for a bowl of porridge - how she found porridge in Dublin at four o'clock in the morning I will never know!
"But that was kind of the moment that I accepted I had to go into the hospital and I went into the hospital and it literally changed my life. It was the best thing I've ever done to be honest."
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