British actress Sophie Turner, best known for her work as Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones and a younger Jean Grey in the X-Men movies, got candid with Dr. Phil about her experiences with mental health. At around the age of 17, she said she started to struggle with depression, and it only got worse when trolls would write negative comments about her online.
"There's been a few things but I think the biggest challenge, and I've had it for the longest out of all my mental health problems, is my depression," she explained at the 1:38 point of the interview. "I've suffered with depression for about five or six years now, and the biggest challenge is just for me getting out of bed and getting out the house. Learning to love yourself is the biggest challenge, I think."
Explaining further, she added that she didn't have any issues with depression until she was 17. "I had a really happy childhood," she added. "It was a combination of social media on the rise at that time, and also my friends were all going to university. I wasn't going to university, I was working, but I was still living at my parents' house. So I felt very alone."
Later in the interview, Turner spoke about how depression impacted her while working on Game of Thrones. The negative comments about her and her character took a toll, with certain weight-related comments and criticisms of her acting abilities bothering her in particular. "I would just believe it. I would say, ‘Yeah, I am spotty. I am fat. I am a bad actress,"' she said at the 10:10 mark. "I would just believe it. I would get [the costume department] to tighten my corset a lot. I just got very, very self-conscious."
Eventually the comments led her towards isolation, but she stresses that she doesn't believe she's capable of self-harm. "It's weird. I say I wasn't very depressed when I was younger, but I used to think about suicide a lot when I was younger. I don't know why though," she added. "Maybe it's just a weird fascination I used to have, but yeah, I used to think about it. I don't think I ever would have gone through with it. I don't know."
Turner said that she's on medication and has sought therapy and other forms of treatment. She's currently on a break from acting now that her work on both X-Men and Game of Thrones is done. She has been outspoken about mental health in the past, and was critical of YouTuber Logan Paul for his controversial Aokigahara "Suicide Forest" video.
