Carol Harrison tried to take her own life as she struggled to cope with her late mother’s mental health battle.
The former ‘EastEnders’ actress was just 18 when she took an overdose – which led to her spending three months in a psychiatric hospital – and she has opened up about the devastating time as part of Mental Health Awareness Week.
Carol, now 64, told the Express: "I had a breakdown when I was 18 because of it. I tried to commit suicide."
The former soap star – who Grant Mitchell’s secret lover Louise Raymond from 1998 to 1999 – admitted it was difficult growing up trying to deal with single mum Frances’ mental illness.
She explained: "I realised mum wasn’t normal when I was about six. She was paranoid and she suffered badly from depression.
"It was like she was bipolar but without the manic side. I would have to stand up to that and it made me desperately unhappy."
Carol added that her mother refused to get help for her issues, and she was scared of the idea of "going into a mental institution" because of family history.
She said: "Mum was unhappy all the time but she never got any help. She was frightened of going into a mental institution because that’s what had happened to her aunt."
Meanwhile, Carol has previously opened up about her exit fro ‘EastEnders’ 20 years ago, and suggested she was axed because of "an age thing".
Speaking last month, she said: "I felt a real sense of rejection. Acting has always been my very first love and then it was suddenly completely unrequited.
"It was an age thing. There was a time when there were hardly any parts for someone of my age and in that soap as well, they were divided.
"It was the youngsters and the older people. That middle range of us, what we were, middle-aged I guess."
Carol Harrison tried to commit suicide because of mum’s mental illness
