“I am on antidepressants to this day. I could be on them for the rest of my days.”
Christopher Eccleston has revealed his lifelong battle with anorexia.
The former Doctor Who actor has described him as a “lifelong body-hater”, saying that he has struggled with the mental illness for his entire life.
“Many times I’ve wanted to reveal that I’m a lifelong anorexic and dysmorphic,” he wrote in his new autobiography, I Love The Bones Of You.
“I never have. I always thought of it as a filthy secret, because I’m northern, because I’m male and because I’m working class.”
Eccleston, who began playing the ninth Doctor in the revival of the sci-fi show back in 2005, said that he was “very ill” when he took on the role.
He also said that he had contemplated suicided following the breakdown of his marriage.
“The illness is still there raging within me as the Doctor,” he said. “People love the way I look in that series, but I was very ill.”
“I am on antidepressants to this day. I could be on them for the rest of my days. I do have an issue with that.
“I would like to attempt slowly to reduce the dose to experience reality again, to see how I do… And yet, interestingly I have received some of the best reviews of my life since I started taking them.”
Eccleston’s I Love The Bones Of You is published in the UK this Thursday.
