Much-loved chef, author and radio star, Julie Goodwin has opened up for the first time about her private battle with depression, and how she ended up spending five weeks in a mental health facility.
WATCH: MasterChef’s Julie Goodwin reveals behind her mental breakdown
Speaking to Lisa Wilkinson on The Sunday Project, the original MasterChef Australia winner opened up about her struggles over the past few months.
“I found myself in hospital having suffered just a massive episode of depression and anxiety and a whole lot of stuff I couldn’t manage and it was a shock to me,” Goodwin said.
“It wasn’t just a feeling, it became physical –my hands shook so hard that I couldn’t put a fork full of food to my mouth,” she said, adding that it was “frightening” and that she wasn’t sleeping.
Julie went on to praise her husband, Mick – who she has been with for 25 years – for insisting she seek medical help.
“I’m very grateful to my husband Mick for making that decision (to go to hospital) … He just said to me, I’m not equipped to deal with what you’re going through right now, and I need some help with this.
“If I hadn’t been taken there, I don’t know where I’d be now,” she added.
Despite the fact she ended up spending their silver wedding anniversary in hospital, Julie said she knew “from the centre of my soul” that her husband’s number one priority was getting her health back on track.
“It was an enormous weight lifted off me, enormous weight,” she said of taking time off work.
“What it gave me was the idea that I might be able to feel joy again and that I might be able to feel excited about my life again,” Goodwin added, explaining that she “couldn’t see a way out” of her current situation of despair.
At the beginning of this year, Goodwin disappeared from the airwaves of Star 104.5’s Rabbit and Julie Goodwin, telling fans in February she’d spent five weeks in a mental health facility after experiencing a bout of depression so severe she couldn’t eat or sleep.
Goodwin noted that her mental health will “always be a work in progress”.
“I am capable of being depressed and being anxious and it’s up to me now to keep doing the things I need to do to keep that at bay.”
If you or someone you know needs help, contact: beyondblue 1300 224 636 or beyondblue.org.au; SuicideLine 1300 651 251; MensLine 1300 789 978; Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit lifeline.org.au.
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