ScoMo makes candid anxiety admission

Scott Morrison has revealed he was placed on medication to cope with “debilitating and agonising” anxiety during his tumultuous prime ministership as he navigated the Covid pandemic and Australia’s showdown with China.

Ahead of the release of his book, Plans for Your Good: A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness, Mr Morrison, 55, said without medication he would have fallen into a serious depression during his time in The Lodge from 2018-22.

“I think it just sort of built up,” he told The Australian.

“It was a very stressful period and the combination of the weight of issues, the length of hours that we were working, the physical demands that brought and, to be honest, the stuff around China was as, if not more, distressing than the pandemic.”

He said he sought help from a Canberra doctor, who prescribed him medication.

“My doctor was amazed I had lasted as long as I had before seeking help,” he writes.

“Without this help, serious depression would have manifested. What impacted me was the combination of pure physical exhaustion with the unrelenting and callous brutality of politics and media attacks.” Mr Morrison said other methods to deal with his anxiety, such as swimming and cooking, were not enough.

“You dread the future and you can’t get out of bed,” he writes.

The Australian describes the book as not a traditional political memoir but “an unusual blend of how his own faith as a Christian intersected with his time as prime minister”.