Sophie Turner has spoken out on her mental health battle, admitting that criticism over her looks and acting on her hit show Game of Thrones led her to have suicidal thoughts.
The 23-year-old actress was making an appearance on Dr Phil’s podcast Phil in the Blanks on Tuesday, when she said she had stepped away from the showbiz world and acting to take care of herself.
Sophie, who is in therapy and on medication, also credited her fiancé Joe Jonas with helping her through depression, admitting ‘when someone tells you they love you every day it makes you love yourself’.
Sophie told Dr Phil that she first began having mental health issues when she was 17, explaining that living at her parent’s home while she worked and her friends and brothers were away at university was a triggering factor.
‘I’ve suffered with my depression for five or six years now. The biggest challenge for me is getting out of bed and getting out of the house. Learning to love yourself is the biggest challenge,’ she said.
Sophie also said that she thought about suicide when she was a teenager. ‘It’s weird. I say I wasn’t very depressed when I was younger, but I used to think about suicide a lot when I was younger. I don’t know why though,’ she said.
‘Maybe it’s just a weird fascination I used to have, but yeah, I used to think about it. I don’t think I ever would have gone through with it. I don’t know.’
Criticism on social media over her weight and acting ability during the early seasons of GoT also affected the young actress, who shot to fame as Sansa Stark on the smash hit show.
‘I would just believe it,’ she said of the social media comments. ‘I would say, “Yeah, I am spotty. I am fat. I am a bad actress.” I would just believe it. I would get [the costume department] to tighten my corset a lot. I just got very, very self-conscious.’
‘I had no motivation to do anything or go out,’ she continued of how her depression affected her. ‘Even with my best friends, I wouldn’t want to see them… I would cry and cry and cry. Just having to change and put on clothes, I said, “I can’t do this. I can’t go outside. I have nothing that I want to do.”’
During breaks from filming Game of Thrones, Sophie spent all of her time with co-star Maisie Williams, 22, but the actress admitted at some points their co-dependent relationship was ‘destructive.’
‘I have a friend, Maisie who was on the show with me, she’s just a year younger than me and we were growing up together. She was my best friend, and she was the only one I really told about everything,’ Sophie said.
