‘You can’t make any decisions’: Huw Edwards talks about the ‘dread’ of depression
Broadcaster Huw Edwards has spoken about the “dread” of depression in a new interview, saying that it leaves him unable to make new decisions.
In an interview with Men’s Health UK he said his depression tends to “hit” him “in a strong wave and then go away”
He had first discussed his battle with depression in a documentary aired on S4C between Christmas and the new year.
Speaking to mental health campaigner and columnist Alastair Campbell as part of the Men’s Health UK Talking Heads interview series, Huw Edwards said: “I’m pretty clear that I have suffered – and do suffer – from depression.
“It’s not anxiety, although it includes anxiety, but it tends to hit me in a strong wave and then go away… I think at least I now know when I’m going to enter a phase like that.”
He said that the first time it happened “‘I went down fairly quickly and I couldn’t understand it. I didn’t want to speak to anybody.”
He added: “Your mind goes into a place where you don’t want to do anything. You can’t make any decisions.
“Things that you usually enjoy, you dread. You come into work and obviously you do a professional job, but you’re kind of pushing your way through it.
“And, of course, if it’s very bad – as it has been a few times over the course of 20 years – you can’t work. During the worst one I had, I couldn’t get out of bed.”
He added that exercise had been his way of fighting back against the depressive episodes.
“You are in some sort of a personal zone. The whole thing is about relaxing even though it is fitness,” he said.
Huw Edwards was speaking to Men’s Health UK ‘Talking Heads’ columnist, Alastair Campbell, in the June issue of the magazine, on sale from May 25.
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