Medics failed me over mental issues, claims Sheridan Smith

THE actress Sheridan Smith has revealed how she struggled with mental health issues for years because she was never properly diagnosed.

The 37-year-old star pulled out of a number of performances for Funny Girl, the West End musical, in 2016 and later said she “just couldn’t continue – I lost my mind”.

Smith, who plays a mother struggling with schizophrenia in her latest film, said her struggles were partly due to an incorrect diagnoses by doctors, but she is now in a “great place”.

She told BBC Breakfast: “It’s taken me years to get to a place where I felt like I could own it and then say it. It was speculated that I was struggling. There were different doctors giving me different medication, but I’m finally in a good place. It did take a massive thing to come out and actually say ‘I’m struggling and I need help’, so I understand that it is hard for people.”

Asked what helped her most, she said: “Eventually, I opened up to family members and people could see, as well, that I was gradually declining and struggling.

“Eventually, after years of going on different medication and just being wrongly diagnosed, I’ve got the right doctor now and I’m in a great place.

Smith stars in The More You Ignore Me, an Eighties-set film penned by Jo Brand, the comedian and former psychiatric nurse. She added: “It’s a very hot topic at the moment and a very important topic so I’m thrilled to be part of it...we have come a long way (but) I think we can go further.”

‘There were different doctors giving me different medication, but I’m finally in a good place’