Part 1 of my conversation with actor, Emmy winner, best-selling author and mental health advocate Maurice Benard.
Photo by Jim Warren
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Story Production: Aaron Calafato
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Photo: Jim Warren
Music Contributor: thomas j. duke
Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
TRASNCRIPT
7minuteswithMauriceBenardPart1.mp3 - powered by Happy Scribe
Hi, it's Cori. I just wanted to let you know the talk you're about to hear with Aaron and Maurice Benard features conversation about mental health, anxiety and depression. If this is a trigger for you or you're currently struggling with your mental health, please consider reaching out to your doctor or a mental health professional. If you're depressed or having suicidal thoughts, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. It's available 24 hours at 800 273 8255. Thanks so much.
Hey, everybody. So last episode you heard my 7 Minute Story about Sonny Corinthos, that character from the soap opera General Hospital, played amazingly by the actor Maurice Benard. And if you haven't listen to that story, stop this right now. Go back, take a listen. So, that this episode makes a lot more sense and makes more of an impact. Because what you're about to hear is 7 minutes with the man himself, Maurice Benard, part 1. I mean, we had this conversation we recorded, it's surreal for me, but we recorded this talk. We talked for like 45 minutes, almost an hour. So, I had to break it down into two 7 minute segments. The first one you're going to hear today and then the following week you'll hear part two. But before we get into our talk and my little narration through that journey, I wanted to give you some context. First, if you don't know, Maurice Benard is an Emmy winning actor, a best selling author and a nationally recognized mental health advocate for so many people living with bipolar disorder. Now, you don't create that kind of platform or inclusive community like he has with his weekly YouTube show that I recommend called State of Mind. You don't create that kind of community unless you have a story of your own to tell, unless you've been through it yourself. And man, Maurice has been through it and he's come out the other side in so many occasions and has created really a beautiful life for he and his family and a career. And it really started at a young age for him. He was having manic outbursts and he was having hallucinations, all these scary things that they really didn't have a name for at the time, or at least a lot of people. And he ends up having a nervous breakdown at 22, gets institutionalized against his will. This is unbelievable. He then breaks out of the mental hospital and somehow is able to get back on his feet. And over the years, he meets who will become his wife, Paula. They have an amazing family. They're an amazing support to him. He ends up becoming one of the most well-known actors on daytime television, on General Hospital, Sonny Corinthos. And he's really figured out a way through routine meditation, diet, exercise, medication, animal therapy, all of this stuff together to sustain a really beautiful life. And that's how he's become an advocate. But what I love about Maurice, is he's honest even with struggles that he deals with to this day. And one of these things was really unexpected, or at least it was triggered from something that was unexpected, that you couldn't have expected me or nobody else. And that was the global pandemic. And that's where our conversation starts just this last couple of years where the global pandemic triggered some anxiety that Maurice had never experienced before. And as we started talking about this, there was a parrot in the room where he was recording that tried to join our conversation
And.. Let me get out of here, because this this bird.. making me go...I got a parrot that talks when I when I do State of Mind or whatever (laughs)
Is that a parrot?
Yeah, it's a little parrot. Because here's the thing, man. And I've had it's funny you're talking to me about this, because I thinking about, there's been probably three times in my life when I truly didn't want to go on. But it was only the last time here during the pandemic. That I was literally looking at trees. And thinking about how to put the rope... Yeah, that was going on in my head, so that's when it's getting closer, I would imagine. But, you know, the first time when I had depression, I was in that state, and I hate to say my own show, but it is your state of mind because....what changed me out of that, in one day after eight months of depression. There's one thing and all of a sudden I'm better. I won this contest called The Most Watchable in America. Boom! I'm fine! So it's your mind. It's not what we all...I know what's inside here and it's painful and it's the head, the thoughts. But how can doing one thing go from being hell to heaven? I was great, dancing, I win this thing, my dad's partying, and after that, I was good. So, it truly is man. The State of Mind. Yeah, but it's a... it's been an experience.
That line really stuck with me. How can one thought make you go from heaven to hell or hell to heaven? Something I started thinking about and the power of the mind. And so I asked Maurice, despite some of the more recent struggles with this anxiety, how has he been able to sustain throughout all these years?
Here's what I'll say too. This is a good interview, I like it. The reason I've been able to survive also because I don't do drugs or drink. And I'm going to interview somebody who I helped out about 20 years ago who is doing fantastic now. And I think he was doing heroin and he's bipolar. There's no way I would have been able to do it. The reason I've been able to sustain is because I stayed on my medication for bipolar. So, I've been on lithium for...Twenty eight years, man, and I haven't had a break. I had three breakdowns before that. Nothing since I've been on the medication. You have to be diligent, you have to be consistent and the you know, a lot of these medications do work.
As the talk went on, I decided to ask Maurice, if he felt that besides the negative aspects of his mental struggles, did he ever look at them as a potential superpower or something that benefited him?
You know, I tell people you have to be proud of being bipolar, proud of being mentally ill, but it takes... really feeling and believing that. Because truly, would I be who I am today? Would I be the actor I am? No. Although my son, which is I can't understand it, is a phenomenal actor at 16 and he hasn't been through anything. So, I'm like, damn, but I know for myself. Especially early on, I would draw on it. I would write on my script tied down to a bed, escaping the hospital, you know, everything that I've gone through so many deaths that I've had to, you know, people that I love have died. It all makes you better man. But it's how you look at it, right? Because it could go you can go the other way. You could go, this is too much, I got to start drinking, I got to do this, I got to do that. But if you think about it in terms of I'm going to use this and somehow be better, change. Even now, I'm going through, which is kind of personal, but just. With my family. I think this last experience has.... Man, I'm just happy to be breathing, bro. I'm just, I'm just happy sometimes I'm like, thank God I can just get up in the morning. Because, there's like eight months ago where I thought. This ain't never going to happen.
Just talking with Maurice made me feel comfortable and at ease, and so I decided to tell him about my struggles with anxiety and the therapy that I've been doing over the past year. And then that sparked a story from him that happened during the pandemic and some of his thoughts on therapy.
Then I go sit down, lay down, my wife comes over she goes: "they're shutting down General Hospital, and you're not going to go on your book tour." And I'm like, and I felt, I felt the rush in me man. And after that it was over. And then I still had to do zoom things for my book for like a month. Everyday, get up in the morning and these people, and a lot of us talking about mental health, right? So, they didn't know that I was dying inside. So, but that was it. But you're absolutely right, because that's something I have to admit I don't do, is therapy like I should. And I think, now that we're talking about it, you need the therapy so you can figure out the trigger before it happens, right?
Absolutely.
I think that's a key. And I didn't do that. I was feeling great before all of this covid and the book, and this was happening, I was doing great. But, boom! Maybe if I had been going to therapy, because there's something deep down inside of me that I have to figure out. And it's a lot of deep childhood stuff that I need...as a matter of fact. I'm going to start going to therapy after this conversation! (laughs)
All right, that's the end of part one, I can tell you this, for part two, Maurice turns the tables on me, and starts interviewing me about my anxiety and asking me some questions, which is pretty cool. And then we talk more about sports. We talk about his acting process. Really good finish to the conversation. So make sure and tune in next week for 7 Minutes with Maurice Bernard Part 2. You're not going to want to miss it. Talk to you then!
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