Beverley Callard has slammed fellow celebrities for making mental health “fashionable” like a “Gucci handbag”.
The 61-year-old actress – who is best known for portraying Liz McDonald in Coronation Street – has been open about her battle with depression in the past, but admits there is “a danger” it could be seen as trendsetting.
She told Best magazine: “Real mental illness is very dark and it takes a great deal of strength to ask for help.
“I think we are now definitely chipping away at the stigma.
“But we have to be careful mental illness doesn’t become like a Gucci handbag.
“There is a danger it can become ‘fashionable’.”
Beverley is an ambassador for mental health charity Mind, but admits she was reluctant to open up about her illness to the public at first.
She explained: “In the beginning I didn’t want to talk about my depression. But I also wanted to be up front and honest.
“You think you’re completely alone. But actually there are thousands going through exactly what you are.”
The soap star took two months off from the cobbles three years ago to deal with her mental health.
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She previously felt she had plunged into a “black hole” after feeling “idiotic” in one of her character’s outfits on Coronation Street, and she subsequently spent four days alone in bed with just a bottle of water.
She previously said: “My confidence had just totally gone. I looked around the set and there were all these beautiful females. I just thought, ‘I can’t do it’.
“One of the make-up girls, who are our great friends, they saved my life. They know me so well and said, ‘You need to go home’.”
Bev returned to her role after she visited a London medic, as recommended by her former co-star Denise Welch.
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The uplifted star recently said she wants her character Liz to have some more comical storylines in 2019, following a bleak year which involved her being fooled into thinking her dead daughter had returned in order to dupe her out of money in 2018.
She previously said: “It would be quite nice to have a bit of comedy soon, hopefully. But I don’t know whether that’s going to be the case, I don’t know.”
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