Drew Barrymore and Madison Beer Open Up About Depression and Suicidal Ideation
Last Wednesday, The Drew Barrymore Show saw Drew Barrymore and guest Madison Beer opening up about their struggles with depression.
The 24-year-old singer shared with Drew her experiences with depression as she talked about her memoir entitled The Half of It, which focuses on depression and suicidal ideation.
To the audience’s shock, the host, Drew herself, also shared that she had gone through something similar and had thought about taking her life before — not once but in two different circumstances.
The Charlie’s Angel star confessed that she considered suicide because she was lost and didn’t know what else to do. Her desperation during those low times made her think suicide was the perfect and logical escape from everything.
“Everybody struggles, so I related on levels that are difficult to talk about, and I want to thank you because you’re discussing stuff right now that I want to make you feel safe about because I’ve been there,” said Drew.
She also added that, like her, attempts to escape life become a clear choice when people struggle.
Madison then went on to share her story: “I got to the point that things caught up with me that I had never acknowledged, I never wanted to face. I feel like I was putting on this facade and living this role I had been assigned for so long, and it all caught up to me one day, and then one day turned into weeks and months, and honestly, I feel like it was at least year that I was always in this sort of like suicidal ideation mindset.”
The singer continued, “It felt very normal to me to think about that at the end of every day, and then that wasn’t until I ended up making an attempt. It was, thankfully, obviously unsuccessful.” And then, Madison shared, that everything became too much for her, which is also when she decided that there was something more for her to live her life.
At that point, her life wasn’t that successful, and she wanted to do something to remedy that. She said she wanted to say that she chose to continue living but needed guidance on what to do next.
Drew asked her guest if the decision to end her life happened again, and Madison admitted that it did. But the second time was more concerning because, at that time, it was more like brushing off everything, and the singer was already at that point where contemplating suicide was normal.
“It became so normal that sitting on a balcony and debating jumping off was just something that I kind of did,” Madison said.
During that time, Madison honestly reflected that back then, suicide was not a big deal to her. But while writing about her experiences in her memoir, she realized that, yes, her decisions then were undoubtedly a big deal.
Drew then echoed that she had also thought about ending her life twice when she was younger and explained that she was not really sure if she wanted to leave Earth, but because of her desperation, she thought suicide was the solution.
The two ladies talked about the changes in their mindset after the incidents and how they both found their way back, and Madison admitted that it is still a work in progress and that the healing is continuous.
