I pondered suicide at my lowest point. Since the pandemic’s impact on the number of individuals with depression is so great, I’ve relied heavily on therapy. Anthea Turner’s sister Wendy has spoken out about her battle with depression in this harsh interview.
Wendy Turner-Webster has struggled with anxiety and sadness for as long as she can remember.
Since her late teens, she’s been plagued with anxiety over money, employment, and relationships, but she’s learned to deal with it.
However, her childhood depression has only recently been alleviated through psychotherapy, following years of medicine.
Wendy Turner, 53, the younger sister of TV presenter Anthea Turner, has contemplated suicide on several occasions in the intervening years. In the years, Wendy admits she’s given Gary a lot of money in the years. Because of his affection and support, “I often think I’d be long dead without his love.” Above, you can see the two of them together.
‘I wouldn’t leave the house for some time two or three years ago because I didn’t want the temptation to get too close to the railway line,’ she recalls.
‘However, considering suicide is not the same as really attempting to commit suicide. As a mother, wife, and mother-in-law, the thought of harming my family — including my husband and children — has never crossed my mind.
“However, I have denied myself the option of escaping this severe despair,” I say. “It makes you feel confined,” he says.
Actor Gary Webster is the father of Wendy’s two kids, Jack, 21, and Freddie, 17. He is best known for his roles as George Cole’s sidekick in Minder and a frequent cast member in Family Affairs.
Wendy admits that she’s “lent on Gary enormously through the years.” As I often tell people, “I’d be dead and gone without his love and support.”
According to a Public Health England survey released this week, the number of persons suffering from mental health concerns has increased dramatically since the outbreak of the epidemic. People’s mental health has deteriorated by 56 percent since March of last year, with 48 percent reporting an increase in anxiety and 46 percent reporting a decrease in mood.
Having become spokespeople for a charity, Silence of Suicide, committed to removing the stigma of deep-seated despair, Wendy has decided to speak up about her personal experiences.
Michael Mansfield QC and his third wife, Yvette Greenway, who had also lost a friend to suicide, Michael Mansfield’s daughter Anna, founded it in 2015.
Wendy avoided talking about her debilitating bouts of depression for years out of shame. In 2017, as she reached her 50th birthday, she was assaulted by one such wave.
As Wendy describes it, she felt “despaired with the concept that life looked like it could never be better than this.”
My thoughts turned to the subject of why I was here on this planet, and they consumed me. ‘A tide of despair engulfed me.’
In the 1990s, she was taken sertraline, an antidepressant medication. Her physician progressively upped it from 50 mg every day to 200 mg to achieve the maximum dose to reach the total quantity.
That was not enough to stop Wendy’s melancholy episodes, and a filming job in the summer of 2013 was the last straw.
Undercover, she was investigating how pigs were kept at a pig farm.
When we recorded in the middle of the night in a cramped, dark hangar, we could only fit around half of the pigs inside, explains Wendy. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before.
She was inconsolable for days, she said. As though my body had shut down, I became sad to the point where I could no longer function. I slept in a bed for days in a state of semi-paralysis.
However, after years of relying on medication to alleviate her depression, which first struck in childhood, psychotherapy has recently been able to do so. Wendy Turner, 53, the younger sister of TV presenter Anthea Turner, has contemplated suicide on several occasions in the intervening years. Above, the two are shown together.
For counseling, her doctor recommended her to a local mental health center. Then again, Wendy had little hope that anything of value would come out of the situation.
She admits, “I was skeptical.” ‘What is the point of counseling?’ How may words help me with my inherent depressiveness? In my mind, I had come to accept that this was the state of affairs that I would have to live with for the rest of my life.’
Because of the epidemic, she had to have an initial assessment via phone and was diagnosed with severe existential despair.’ In the most basic terms, life is meaningless; there is no purpose to it.
Wendy says she was surprised by the diagnosis but relieved because it was more severe than typical depression. After naming the problem, I was able to begin dealing with it.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy was also recommended, which tries to enhance mental health by questioning and modifying problematic thoughts and beliefs.
Wendy had to wait three months for an NHS counselor to be assigned to her. She started her weekly one-hour phone sessions in November.
Because they are teaching her to remain calm and analyze her feelings rather than giving up in despair, the eight sessions she’s had so far have been an enormous help.
She says, “I’m fortunate because I get to talk to the same person every time.” It would have been impossible for me to open up like this with a succession of therapists.
As part of my ongoing effort to improve my thinking style, I’m required to complete reading and writing assignments each week. ‘It’s been an eye-opener,’ I can only say.
However, it hasn’t been an easy ride. Anxiety about her finances started after just three weeks of classes, causing a full-blown panic attack. In the mid-1990s, she confided in her GP about her mental health issues. It made a ‘big change’ in her moods, thanks to the sertraline she was prescribed. ‘I began to feel better than I had in a long time.’
However, Wendy’s deep-seated despair was still there.
She’s astonished that CBT is helping so much, given how much she’s been through.
In the beginning, she was skeptical, but now she’s convinced that these people are professionals. A blueprint for the most pleasing way to live the remainder of my life is gradually being shown to me.’
