My drinking was so bad I was locked away & I was put on suicide watch. It could happen to anyone, says Linda Robson
LOOSE Women’s Linda Robson has bravely opened up about her battles with addiction – which left her suicidal.
The TV legend, 65, said she “hated herself” after struggling with her mental health since 2008.
She admitted that she became so low that she “wasn’t trusted” to be left alone with her grandchildren – which she said only made her feel worse.
Looking back at where her troubles stemmed, she believes it was when Ben Kinsella, a close family friend, was murdered when he was just 16.
Her drinking spiraled out of control and she found herself on suicide watch after suffering from a breakdown.
In her upcoming memoir, Linda wrote that she never thought she would struggle with her mental health.
She explained how the addiction crept up on her, saying that she went from enjoying the odd glass of wine to downing a bottle a night.
As well as drinking heavily, she was struggling with insomnia and OCD.
Her family became so concerned that they considered getting her sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
Linda agreed to seek help and voluntarily checked into the Nightingale Hospital.
She said she “didn’t know if she would come home again” after walking through the doors.
“I hated myself. I told myself I was just a burden to Mark and the kids and that I was ruining all their lives,” Linda writes in the extract of her memoir published in the Daily Mail.
“I couldn’t even be trusted with my own grandchildren. That’s when I started to think i’d be better off dead. At least without me around they’d be able to get on with their lives and wouldn’t have to worry about who was going to be looking after me.”
“I told the Nightingale staff I wanted to kill myself and I was immediately put on suicide watch with someone sitting outside my bedroom door the whole time,” Linda continues.
She said how she’d thought about ways she could end her own life and started self-harming as a way to cope.
Reflecting on the harrowing time, she said that she often wonders if things would have been different had she sought help after Ben’s death.
Linda checked out of the hospital in March 2019 and moved into the Priory.
She enrolled in AA and worked through the 12 Steps recovery programme as well as attending counselling sessions.
Thankfully, Linda is now in a much better place and says that she is “doing really well”.
The Birds of a Feather star said that she’s fine to be around alcohol and isn’t tempted to drink anymore.
Linda split from Mark Dunford who she was married to for 33 years in November last year.
The couple share two children, Louis and Roberta, known as Bobbie.
Confirming the split with Women’s Own magazine, she said: “He’s [Mark] a really good dad and we had some good years, but enough is enough. I’ve got my family and my kids around me.”
She said that she “can’t be a****” with dating and is focusing on herself and keeping busy.
Before she broke the news, she talked about her marriage troubles on Loose Women.
“If something’s not right in a relationship then I find it very hard to disguise it. “And things haven’t been right in my relationship for quite a long time so, erm, I’ve been very honest about it.”