Star Charlotte tells of mum’s mental health battle onTV
CHARLOTTE Church has revealed that her mother turned to self-harm and drinking as she battled with mental illness while the singer was growing up.
Charlotte, 31, said mum Maria has had extreme “emotional swings and anxiety” since she was born.
Maria, 51, was ever-present at her daughter’s side as the former Voice of an Angel’s career progressed from 11-year-old classical music child star to Crazy Chick pop singer.
But Charlotte said: “My mother has been battling with mental health issues for most of her life.”
Maria, who now runs a B&B in Cardiff, said she suffers from bipolar disorder and anxiety issues.
She said: “I used to call it manic depression or being a loony. It’s now called bipolar with a lot of anxiety, and that has been going on and off for 31 years.
“I’m happy to talk about it because it is not talked about enough and it is awful when you have a dark period. Sometimes it can last a day or sometimes it can last for weeks.
“At times it’s very dark and down and the glass is half-empty – it’s always half-empty and never halffull. The other extreme of it is going absolutely hyper and going on a spending spree and just overexcited, over-happy.
“But then you get a downer from it, that’s when I tend to drink far too much and that’s when usually the self-harming will happen.
“A lot of people talk about mental illness and they talk about selfharming but only up to 20 years of age, no-one ever talks about anyone over 30 and I’m sure I’m not the only person out there.”
Charlotte – now married with two children of her own – has made a BBC television documentary to look at issues around mental health.
She said: “It has been difficult growing up and watching my mother suffer like this, in her darker periods I felt quite powerless and unsure how best to help her.
“The one thing I could do was try to understand, but understanding mental health means understanding the human brain.”
In the BBC Wales documentary Charlotte meets a series of doctors, neuro-scientists and researchers to discuss what causes mental health problems and look at potential solutions.
She said: “I’ll be exploring questions like how effective are current treatments in mental health, what are the root causes of these disorders and what does the future hold for our brains? “It’s a subject close to my heart.” During the show she dissects a brain at Imperial College London and undergoes a test to find out if she is addicted to the internet.
Charlotte Church: Inside My Brain is on BBC One Wales tonight at 8pm.