Sarah Lancashire has considered suicide.
Sarah Lancashire
The 'Happy Valley' actress has battled with depression since she was 17 but has admitted the illness got out of control in her early twenties and almost ruined her career.
She explained: "Tranquillisers were the worst thing for it. I ended up in a terrible mess. My twenties were a write-off. It's a cruel illness because you can't see it and you can hide it so well. At least, I can. I'm a genius at hiding it. I think a lot of people are. Actors are bloody marvellous at hiding.
"In my early days depression did inhibit me because I was too debilitated and terrified to tell anyone why I couldn't get on a train from Manchester for auditions in London."
The 51-year-old star saw her career take off in 1991 after she was cast as ditzy barmaid Raquel Watts, who she played for five years, on 'Coronation Street' but during her half-a-decade on the soap, Sarah suffered a 14-month-long breakdown.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper, she said: "Purely coincidentally I had been written out of the soap for 10 weeks, so I was lucky. it was a like a time bomb waiting to go off."
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