Tony slattery depression test

Late comedian Tony Slattery bravely discussed his harrowing battle with drug addiction.

The beloved actor and comedian has died aged 65 from a heart attack. His partner, actor Mark Michael Hutchinson, confirmed the news on Tuesday (January 14), writing: "It is with great sadness we must announce actor and comedian Tony Slattery, aged 65, has passed away today, Tuesday morning, following a heart attack on Sunday evening."

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The comedian who shot to prominence in the late eighties and early nineties had opened up about his struggles with addiction to cocaine. He started taking the Class A drug in the early nineties and at one point was using 10 grams of cocaine a day - and drinking two bottles of vodka.

It was reported he was spending £4,000 a week on cocaine at his lowest point. Tony confessed that though he doesn't recall the exact sum he spent, he "would not be surprised" if such a figure were accurate.

Speaking on This Morning in 2019, he said: "The overwork, no holidays, no taking a break, eventually you snap, you try to replace it with something. In my case, it was cocaine. Then the booze came along, then the depression set in... I was drinking two bottles of vodka a day and doing 10 grams of coke."

Tony said it was the shame of his mother discovering £160k-worth of cheques stuffed behind his sofa that made him give up the drug. He added: "It's not fun, I wouldn’t recommend it, the devil's dandruff, it heightens makes you uninterruptible, irrational, disinterested".

Tony was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder after meeting with a psychiatrist. He said: "The isolation that comes with bipolarity and depression, you alienate people. They want to like you and love you, if you don't answer messages that's all they can do".

In the one-hour BBC Two documentary What's The Matter With Tony Slattery, he discussed his drinking habits with an addiction psychiatrist. He said: "‘I’d like not to be dependent and to be a slave to these impulses, these cravings, psychological, physical… that’s what I would like".

"‘I can’t imagine it even though I really want to, I just can’t imagine it. I’ve been doing it for so long that it’s hard to think of a time without it". He said of his binge drinking: "The heavy drinking started as self-medication to bring me down from the cocaine,’ he said. ‘I stopped taking cocaine around the millennium".

The star stopped taking the drug when he found out what he was taking, admitting it was ‘very impure.’ After going clean, he said: "It was interesting because I never missed it since".

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