General Hospital star Chris McKenna (Jack Brennan) sat down with Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos) on the State of Mind podcast this weekend and chatted about his mental health struggles.
Chris Is Bipolar
The two ABC soap stars talked about a lot of things before they finally touched on the heavy stuff. Pretty much, raw talk was their conversation. During the episode on YouTube, Benard noted that this was, in fact, the very first time Chris McKenna publicly talked about his bipolar disorder.
According to McKenna, now he is doing great, but it took him all his life to figure out that he had bipolar symptoms and finally reach some stability.
“I lived my whole life with this disorder undiagnosed,” he pointed out. He’d been handling his own manic cycles for years and isolating himself from the world. In fact, it went way back to an emotional collapse he had when he was just a teenager.
COVID Hit Hard
It was really during the COVID-19 pandemic that things went downhill for him. McKenna talked about a spiral which began with a very severe depression and ended with a psychotic episode of mania. After that, there was an incident leading to hospitalization which was the turning point for Chris McKenna.
“And that’s the moment when I finally got the diagnosis that I needed my whole life and I started taking medication,” he said. The time he spent in the hospital was the big turning point he really needed.
Before he was helped, his depression episodes were really quite scary. He would concentrate on the fear of death while at the same time feeling that the rest of life was just a meaningless thing.
“I couldn’t figure out what the point of living was,” McKenna shared. He also admitted that he was constantly using drugs as a means to sleep because he was eager to get away from his own thoughts. In fact, he mentioned that he didn’t have suicidal thoughts because he was “too scared” of death.
How He Copes With It
Talking about the time he was receiving treatment, the process was “really interesting,” but naturally, it was also “quite a challenge.” After all, when he was manic he was delusional and believed he “could read minds.” At one point in the hospital, a question from a doctor finally woke him up from his delusion of psychosis. And he realized he really needed some help.
After he started the right medication, Chris McKenna now can see his life from a different perspective. For example, reading the book Touched with Fire helped him to make a connection between his bipolar disorder and his creativity.
GH Fans React
When Maurice Benard brings on his guests and gets them to talk about mental health, many people appreciate it a lot. And not just General Hospital fans. After all, mental health awareness touches a lot of folks.
In the comments section, one viewer wrote, “An amazing SOM. Thank you Chris for being so real about your life and experiences. Maurice, thank you for all you do to help people who are suffering and struggling through each day.”
Here are a few more responses from the discussion that followed:
- This was such a touching, authentic interview. Thank you both for being so honest and vulnerable.
- Bless your heart, Chris, for laying it on the line. Clarity is the key. The more we are armed with knowledge the better we are prepared to identify symptoms.
- Chris was so vulnerable, open, and honest! Now that he has shared that he is bipolar, I can see how he plays Brennan, who seems so different from the real Chris who always seems to be smiling online.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below, and come back often for all your General Hospital cast news and updates.