Made In Chelsea’s JP Reveals He Contemplated Suicide During His Battle With Depression
Made in Chelsea star Josh Patterson has revealed the he contemplated suicide during his darkest days battling with depression.
The reality television star bravely opened up about his struggles with mental illness during an appearance on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
JP admitted that he hit rock bottom when his parents began arguing, which resulted in a divorce when he was 13 years old.
During his teenage years, Josh became aggressive and started acting out as a means of relieving the anger that he felt inside.
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In a candid conversation, he told GMB hosts Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard: “My issues started at a very young age. My parents who are phenomenal, unfortunately had their differences, it was quite an unhappy marriage for them, which unfortunately affected my sister and I.
“I think it began at nine or 10 for me, being exposed to the arguments, they never intentionally did it, but unfortunately that was the case. So I started to be affected mentally by that.
"It was not until my parents divorced when I was 13 when things actually started to really progress and get far, far worse.
"The way I was behaving in school became quite erratic, I became very aggressive and again just not having an understanding of the way I was behaving and why I was doing it. It was a bad cycle.”
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Josh discussed the moment that he thought about taking his own life and revealed that a message to his friends made him reconsider, and he managed to turn his life around after that.
He said: “Things for me got so bad because I wasn’t actually talking to my parents or my friends about it.
"It was only until one evening when things got too much. For me I’ve always thought I was a very headstrong kind of guy, but it got to the point where I thought I just couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel and that’s when suicide sort of came into play.
"So this one evening I ended up messaging some friends of mine and just saying ‘this is it guys, I just can’t take it anymore.’
"But I had that hesitation straight after and I think by doing that I kind of realised there was so much great in my life and I had such wonderful parents and such an amazing sister to support me, I kind of thought it was selfish to act out like that."
When he arrived at school the next morning, teachers offered him some much-needed support during this difficult stage of his life.
JP highlighted this moment as being the “silver lining” because people around him had a better understanding of what he was going through, which helped to improve the situation.
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On his life now, JP explained: "I’m so happy, my life right now is exactly where I want to be.
"I’ve been given this opportunity to sit with you guys now and express what I was going through and hopefully reach out to however many people are affected by this and just let them know that they’re not alone and there are people out there that would like to hear what they are going through and there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
Josh was speaking to raise awareness of mental illness as part of Good Morning Britain’s ‘Changing Minds’ campaign, as Sunday World reported that statistics show that one in 10 schoolchildren has a mental health problem, which equates to three in every classroom.
