The death of Stephen “tWitch” Boss has inspired Tyler Perry to share about his past suicide attempts. The director hopes his story might dissuade others struggling with depression and suicidal ideation.
The multi-hyphenate, 53, posted a video to Instagram Thursday, which he addressed to “any of you who are going through hard times, struggling.”
Perry was “shocked” by the death of 40-year-old Boss, the dancer, DJ and producer perhaps best known for his work on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” The ‘House of Payne’ creator noted Boss was “always full of life.”
“With that said, I just want to take it back to a time in my life when I tried to commit suicide, a couple of times, because it was so dark I didn’t think it would get any better,” continued Perry. “I had endured so much pain, so much abuse, sexual abuse, it was all so hard to just move through that I thought the only way to make this better was to end my life.”
Perry said he now looks at the all-encompassing pain as “a buy-in.”
“What I mean by that is, all that pain, all that hell, all that struggle, if I had given up, if I had stopped, I wouldn’t have seen the better part of my life,” he said. “I was buying into something, I was paying for something.”
Though he acknowledged some might feel “there’s no hope,” Perry implored people struggling to reach out for help if they ever feel they’re in “a place where you think you want to end your life.”
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