Taraji P. Henson admits she battled suicidal thoughts at the height of the coronavirus lockdown and considered shooting herself in the head.
Speaking on her Facebook Watch show “Peace of Mind with Taraji” on Wednesday, Dec. 23, the Empire star told Dr. LaShonda Green about her situational depression.
“During this pandemic, it’s been hard on all of us and I had a moment. I had a dark moment. I was in a dark place,” she confessed. “For a couple of days, I couldn’t get out of bed, I didn’t care. That’s not me.
“Then I started having thoughts about ending it. It happened two nights in a row and I purchased a gun not too long ago; it’s in a safe, and I started like, ‘I could go in there right now and end it all, because I want it to be over’.
“I thought about my son, he’s grown, he’ll get over it. I didn’t care. I felt myself withdrawing. People were calling me, I wasn’t responding, I didn’t care.”
But Taraji overcame her suicidal ideations by confiding in a dear friend.
“I felt like, if I don’t say it, it becomes a plan,” she added. “What scared me is I did it two nights in a row. First, it was like, ‘I don’t wanna be here’. Then I started thinking about going to get the gun and that’s why when I woke up the next morning, I blurted it out.”
Taraji is among the Hollywood stars whose careers and incomes have taken a hit due to the lockdowns. She also recently broke up with her fiancé, NFL player Kelvin Hayden, whom she began dating in 2018.
Adding to her woes, a planned Empire spin-off series featuring her character Cookie Lyon was shelved. She has also been very open about her mental health issues.
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide or in a crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Trained counselors are waiting to take your call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
