Sophie Turner From Game Of Thrones Battled Suicidal Thoughts

The pressure of being on HBO’s massively popular television show Game of Thrones (GoT) could cost you your mental well-being.  Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark in the show, can vouch for that. In an interview on Dr. Phil's podcast this Tuesday, the 23-year-old actress admitted that she has battled depression for several years, adding that she "used to think about suicide a lot when I was younger."

“I would just believe it. I would say, ‘Yeah, I am spotty. I am fat. I am a bad actress.' I would just believe it. I would get to tighten my corset a lot. I just got very, very self-conscious,” Sophie told the host.

Turner rose to fame at the age of 14 when she was cast to play one of the Stark children in the series which enjoys a cult following. Turner says that her popularity came at a price. She was often upset following negative comments about her character and it lead to decline in her mental health, reports E! News.

"I had no motivation to do anything or go out. Even with my best friends, I wouldn't want to see them, I wouldn't want to go out and eat with them. I just would cry and cry and cry over just getting changed and putting on clothes and be like, 'I can't do this. I can't go outside. I have nothing that I want to do.'" – the actress added talking about her struggle with depression.

READ: Bernadette Caulfield – The Unsung Woman Behind ‘Game of Thrones’

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Turner further revealed, "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," adding, "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.”

"I was a television actor now, after all, and that is what television actors do. We work out."- Emilia Clarke

Earlier this month, another lead actress of the show, Emilia Clarke, had penned an essay for The New Yorker detailing her battle with two life-threatening aneurysms. Clarke plays Daenerys Targaryen, aka Khaleesi, The Mother of Dragons. She said that initially she took up exercise to relieve stress and anxiety as the show, which is based on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, gained popularity.

"I was a television actor now, after all, and that is what television actors do. We work out," Clarke wrote.

However, on February 11, 2011 Clarke was rushed to an emergency room due a bad headache. "I immediately felt as though an elastic band were squeezing my brain. I tried to ignore the pain and push through it, but I just couldn’t," Emilia wrote.

Her MRI revealed a subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), a life-threatening type of stroke, caused by bleeding into the space surrounding the brain.

"I remember being told that I should sign a release form for surgery. Brain surgery? I was in the middle of my very busy life—I had no time for brain surgery. But, finally, I settled down and signed. And then I was unconscious. For the next three hours, surgeons went about repairing my brain. This would not be my last surgery, and it would not be the worst. I was twenty-four years old."

Feature Image Credit: geeknation

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