MUCH-loved mental health advocate Majella O’Donnell has encouraged the public to never feel ashamed about experiencing mental health difficulties.
This comes after she appeared on The Late Late Show last night, where she spoke about her recent struggles with her own mental health.
Best known for being married to Donegal singer, Daniel O’Donnell, Majella has always been open about having lived with depression since she was a teenager.
And since her mid-30s, she has been on medication.
However, last year, Majella was hospitalised for the very first time for clinical depression after becoming overwhelmed.
Having sought advice from her doctor, she entered inpatient care at a psychiatric hospital.
Last night, in an interview with Patrick Kielty, Majella said her recent stay in hospital “fixed” her.
“I’ll go and tell anybody, yes, I was in a psychiatric hospital, and they fixed me,” she told Patrick.
“And that is okay.
“Don’t ever, ever feel shameful about it.
“I am looking down the camera and I am saying it to you all out there, never feel ashamed for having mental health problems, we are human.”
Remaining in hospital for a total of ten weeks, Majella said she was surprised by how long she stayed.
“I was in ten weeks altogether, which surprised me actually, I didn’t think I’d be there that long at all,” she said.
“But it took me five weeks to even phone Daniel, five weeks to phone my own husband. I couldn’t.
“I mean, I sent a text and I said ‘I love you all’, but the biggest thing is I had nothing to say.
“I have nothing to say to anybody, I am just dead, so please give me the time to try and come back to life again, to start feeling.”
Majella said she felt like she had no joy in her life.
“I had no joy in my own grandchildren, or my children, which is a terrible thing to say,” she said.
“I did send a text and I just said ‘I need the time, but I will contact you as soon as I can’ and then gradually I started to feel better.”
After ten weeks in hospital, Majella felt like she was ready to go home.
“I was the one that said ‘I am ready to go now’,” she told Patrick.
“They asked me if I was sure, I said ‘yeah, I actually feel a bit of excitement about life again’, which I hadn’t felt for a long time.”
Appealing to the viewers at home, Majella said: “If you have any struggles, and I am purely talking about my experience, go to your GP, tell them how you feel, tell them what you need, and give it up.”
Majella also used her appearance on the popular RTÉ show to appeal to the government over the proposed timetable changes at Donegal Airport.
“Please, please, please, we are begging the government, do not let that second flight go,” she said.
“It is a lifeline in Donegal.”
