Ade :My suicidal thoughts

COMEDIAN Adrian Edmondson says he has contemplated suicide most of his life.

The Young Ones actor broke the news to his shocked comic wife Jennifer Saunders more than 20 years into their marriage. He finally took her advice to seek professional help in 2011.

The revelations emerged via Radio 3 show The Essay where Adrian, 65, has this week been reading a self-penned story called Signs Of Life, which producers of the show say is entirely based on the facts of his own life.

Also know as Ade, the star told how he married a girl at university but it ended badly and this began his mental health issues.

He went on to talk about how he narrowly survived an attempt to kill himself in a bike crash.

Speaking in the present tense, he said: “I’m not entirely well. I see the uni doctor. He puts me on tranquillisers. No one mentions the phrase mental health. No one talks about anything.

“And that attitude still persists in the 70s. I don’t know I’ve got a mental health issue. I don’t like the tranquillisers. I stop taking them.”

As his comedy career began to take off his mental issues got worse, and in his late 30s he became an insomniac.

He continued: “I think suicidal thoughts are normal. I’ve lived with them all my life. I’ve looked at the Tube trains rushing into the stations. It just seems so easy. I’ve looked out of windows, over cliffs. I’ve read up on the contents of the medical cabinet. I know how to do it.” Adrian says he did

PAIN Ade Edmondson eventually tell his wife and has since got help for his inner turmoil. Marrying Jennifer in 1985, he did not speak about his negative feelings with her until 2007.

He said: “It’s not the sort of thing that comes up when you’re dating, I never found the right moment. “She’s shocked. I am a very good actor. She’s sad and worried and tells me that I really need to see someone. I agree and prevaricate.”

But it wasn’t until two friends committed suicide years later that he finally sought help.

“It’s now 2010 and my close friend blows his brains out with a shotgun,” he said. “A year later an even closer friend hangs himself.

“I learn how aggressive these acts are towards everyone left. They devastate so many people and I resolve never to cause that amount of pain. Deciding suicide is not an option is a game changer.”