Press Trust of India

Sunday, March 23, 2008 (London)

In a startling revelation, Harry Potter author J K Rowling has said that she had contemplated suicide while suffering from depression as a struggling single mother.

Rowling, 42, said she was prescribed cognitive behavioural therapy after suffering from ‘’suicidal thoughts” in the aftermath of separation from her first husband, Jorge Arantes, a Portuguese journalist.

At that time, her economic condition was weak as she could only afford to pay the rent of flat in Edinburgh where Rowling resided with her baby daughter Jessica.

”Mid-twenties life circumstances were poor and I really plummeted,” she said.

”The thing that made me go for help was probably my daughter. She was something that earthed me, grounded me, and I thought, this isn’t right, this can’t be right, she cannot grow up with me in this state,” the author said.

It was there she began writing the first Harry Potter book, and now she is one of the world’s richest women, with a fortune worth 545 million pounds.

She has spoken before of her depression, but it is the first time Rowling has admitted that she contemplated suicide.

Rowling said she finally sought professional help.

The author said her usual General Practitioner (GP) was away, and the replacement doctor sent her away.

”She said, ”if you ever feel a bit low, come and speak to the practice nurse” and dismissed me,” Rowling said.

Two weeks later, I had a phone call from my regular GP who had looked back over the notes. She called me in and I got counseling through her, Rowling said.

”She absolutely saved me because I don’t think I would have had the guts to go and do it twice,” the author said.

Rowling said she was happy to discuss her mental problems to challenge the stigma associated with depressive illness.

”I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never,” she said in an interview for a student magazine at Edinburgh University.

Directory categories: Arts, Literature, Children’s, Authors, Rowling, J. K., Harry Potter Series, Movies, Kids and Teens, School Time, Harry_Potter, Society, Death, Suicide