‘Hollyoaks’ Adam Rickitt has revealed a personal connection to his character’s depression storyline.
The 41-year-old actor’s alter-ego Kyle Kelly recently revealed his depression battle and suicidal feelings to Darren Osborne on the Channel 4 soap and Adam revealed his own experiences helped him when preparing for filming.
He told TV Life: "Mental health’s something I’ve been campaigning about for over 20 years. It can never be addressed too much.
"I’ve been an advocate for discussing mental health and also a counsellor.
"I’ve also gone through stuff in my own life so I feel well versed to be able to give a voice to what’s an incredibly important message.
"That’s not to say I know everything, so I spoke to researchers but the majority of it has come from personal experience and from other people’s experiences I’ve heard about through counselling them."
Meanwhile, Adam hopes the storyline will encourage more conversations around mental health.
He previously said: "I think it’s amazing, I genuinely do," he said. "It’s something I’ve campaigned on for 20 years now – I think there are so many misconceptions on mental health.
It’s seen as a weakness, which it’s really not. Every person on the planet is susceptible to having mental health issues.
"With our younger audience demographic, I really hope that it’ll start a conversation, and that people become as aware about mental health as they are about physical health."
Adam Rickitt’s personal connection to depression storyline
