Hollywood actor Dwayne Johnson has shown his gratitude to his fans after they flooded him with support after he opened up about his fight against depression and his mother’s own mental health troubles.
The 45-year-old opened up about his mother’s suicide attempt as well as the time he described as the “worst time” of his life to The Express.
“Got tonnes of responses to this. Thank you. We all go through the sludge/sh*t and depression never discriminates.”
“Took me a long time to realise it but the key is to not be afraid to open up. Especially us dudes have a tendency to keep it in. You’re not alone.” he wrote on his Twitter account.
Previously, Dwayne has mentioned his own issues with mental health when he wrote back to a fan who was suffering from depression: “I hear you. I’ve battled that beast more than once.”
Now, in this new interview, Dwayne aka The Rock explained his issues further and told us about the time where he could not go out and was “crying constantly.”
He also discussed the painful moment when he was a teenager and his mother tried to kill herself in front of him.
“She got out of the car on Interstate 65 in Nashville and walked into oncoming traffic.”
“Big rigs and cars were swerving out of the way. I grabbed her and pulled her back on the gravel shoulder of the road.”
“What’s crazy about that suicide attempt is that to this day, she has no recollection of it whatsoever. Probably best she doesn’t,” he recalled.
His own lowest moment came in 1995 when he was broken up with by his-then girlfriend and was also let go by the Canadian Football League. “That was my absolute worst time,” he said.
Although Dwayne Johnson went on to become a successful wrestler and become known as The Rock before turning to the big screen in the early 2000s, he noted that he could have become as suicidal as his mother.
“We both healed but we’ve always got to do our best to pay attention when other people are in pain. We have to help them through it and remind them they are not alone,” he told The Express.
Got tons of responses to this. Thank you. We all go thru the sludge/shit and depression never discriminates. Took me a long time to realize it but the key is to not be afraid to open up. Especially us dudes have a tendency to keep it in. You’re not alone
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) April 2, 2018
Now, he is now one of the biggest and highest paid actors, recently starring in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and making big hits such as the Fast & Furious franchise, Hercules, Central Intelligence and more.
As Dwayne has mentioned, you are not alone and you must always seek help if you feel this way at all. Depression can be a dark place and can often make people very lonely. You can always talk to someone, whether it be online, on the phone or to a friend or relative. Please always reach out to someone and don’t think that suicide is your only option.