HOLLYOAKS and Celebrity Love Island favourite Paul Danan has opened up about coping with addiction and being diagnosed with ADHD.
Speaking to Lee Anderson on GB News, Paul spoke about how he was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 40 and how it can be the underlying causes of addictions.
Asked if someone could have an addictive personality, he said: “There’s no such thing. I thought that’s what it was all about.
“But I’ve learned a lot more since being in treatment and and in recovery and just realising that actually I think that some people have more cortisol or more anxiety, if you have alcoholism or addiction in you.
“And I also think that if you have that fear, that nervousness, and that that stuff going on in you, then it can be caused from trauma when you were younger, and that trauma and stuff can be part of a mental health problem.
“I didn’t know I had ADHD, which is where things can get overwhelming and things can be too much sometimes. And it used to be an anger illness, funny enough.
“But you don’t know that you’re dealing with something, and then you’re trying to help it with a stimulant, which is what calms you, and that stimulant is not good for you and becomes detrimental to your life.”
He said since recovering from addiction, he started a theatre company which was aimed at helping others overcome similar issues.
“When I understood in my head, and the doctor was helping me and all of that, I was able to focus on building this theatre company where I wanted to give back to people with mental health and addiction problems.
“I thought, well, let’s do some drama. Let’s do some role playing. You know, let’s build their confidence a bit and have fun and be a kid again and start to kind of escape in a healthy way.
“I give it for free. I say I gave it because the funding’s run out, and this is what’s really tough, you know, when suddenly there isn’t enough funding for the arts or for mental health as much.”
Asked what someone should do to overcome an addiction, he said: “If they’ve got 12 or 13 grand, they can get into rehab. But otherwise, there’s drug and alcohol agencies that will [help], if they really want to.
“They will give them that chance, and they will get them the funding, because they only get a certain amount of funding to put people like that into rehab, and they can’t put everyone, but there is funding.
“It’s there, but you’ve got to show that you really want it and you want it for you, and no one else is telling you to go.”
On the pressures of fame, he said: “It’s the hatred towards yourself which then causes that depression, horrible thing, to hate yourself and you can’t look in the mirror and you’re full of guilt and shame and the only thing that’s going to numb that is something to stop that pain.
“So, in a way, you’re self-medicating. Do you know what I mean? But at the same time, that self-medicating will only last for two minutes, and then you’ve got all the repercussions of it. So is it worth it?”
