Julie Goodwin opened up about her mental breakdown during an episode of The Project earlier this month.
WATCH: MasterChef’s Julie Goodwin reveals what caused her mental breakdown
And now, the beloved former MasterChef star has gone into further detail about her darkest moment.
The 49-year-old admitted to a local publication that she completely ‘fell apart’ earlier this year after a sustained battle with depression and anxiety.
‘I think I was as close to a complete mental breakdown as you can get and still be alive,’ Julie said.
‘I never consciously thought about not being alive or not wanting to be alive. I just couldn’t figure out how to keep going.’
The popular chef was in the car with her husband when she suffered a complete breakdown.
‘Mick [Julie’s husband] pulled the car over to the side of the road,’ says Julie.
‘He looked over at me and said softly, “I need to take you to the hospital”’.
Julie – who is also an author and radio host – ended up spending six weeks in a mental health facility.
“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,” she told Lisa Wilkinson on The Sunday Project earlier this month.
“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.
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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