JOE Pasquale’s actor son Joe Tracini has opened up about his suicide attempt.
The 30-year-old actor – who plays Dennis Savage in the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks – also shared a shock video that showed him high on drugs.
He’s speaking out in a bid to raise awareness oF mental health issues.
Joe said he got better after “climbing over the wrong side of a bridge” – two weeks after taking a “sizeable overdose”.
He started his video by saying: “I was a drug addict, I was an alcoholic, I went to three rehabs.
“I am nearly seven years clean.
“I’m over four years sober and I have been left with a personality disorder called Emotional Unstable Personality Disorder, also known as BPD, which is like a Poundshop bipolar.
“It’s mostly the same stuff, just some of it’s a bit s***ter. That is what I’m living with.
“When you are living with this sort of stuff, you get asked a lot of ‘why’ questions. ‘Why are you doing this? Why don’t you just stop doing this? Why are you doing this again?’
“And the problem with that is, the person with the problems, is generally asking themselves the same questions.
It doesn’t discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society – from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers.
It’s the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, more deadly than cancer and car crashes.
And men are three times more likely to take their own life than women.
Yet it’s rarely spoken of, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage unless we all stop and take notice, now.
That is why The Sun launched the You’re Not Alone campaign.
The aim is that by sharing practical advice, raising awareness and breaking down the barriers people face when talking about their mental health, we can all do our bit to help save lives.
Let’s all vow to ask for help when we need it, and listen out for others… You’re Not Alone.
If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support:
“It gets to the point where you just have to wait and be there if you can for them, and hope that they ask for help before they die.
“When I came out my first rehab in 2012, I asked the people who were closest to me, to film me when I was in whatever state I was in.
“They did and I’m very thankful to them for doing that, because they were just trying to help me out.”
Joe shared a video of himself that was taken in 2012. It shows him crawling along the floor on his hands and knees with what appears to be paraphernalia on the table.
He explained: “I am going to show you something now, which was taken over 24 hours after I had taken a very sizeable overdose and I had walked out of the hospital after they had tried to get what was in me, out.
“I wasn’t drunk, I hadn’t taken anything else and this was about two weeks before I climbed over onto the wrong side of a bridge.
“This isn’t fun. I don’t remember the last time this was fun!”
He then adds: “Why am I doing this? I am doing this because I can’t go back and tell my family that I’m going to be alright.
“I can’t go back and tell me that I’m going to be alright. And even if I could, I would have to tell him that the worst things he’s ever going to do, he hasn’t done yet.
“The drinks and the drugs were a symptom of a bigger problem. And if I’d found the bigger problem quicker, I would have hurt less people.
“So I’m doing it to try and make that worth something.”
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