Finance Minister Katy Gallagher reveals taking antidepressants after personal tragedy

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher says she took antidepressants and had “serious psychiatric interventions” aft the decease of her fiance portion she was large successful the 1990s.

Speaking connected erstwhile premier curate Julia Gillard’s A Podcast of One’s Own, Gallagher is the archetypal person presently successful bureau to speech astir taking medicine for her intelligence wellness aft Scott Morrison revealed helium took anti-depressants portion helium was premier curate successful 2021.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has opened up astir taking anti-depressants.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

In 1997, a past 27-year-old Gallagher was large with her archetypal kid erstwhile her fiance, Brett Seaman, was killed portion riding his motorcycle erstwhile an unlicensed pistillate successful her 80s deed him portion driving her car astatine implicit 100km/h.

Gallagher told Gillard connected the podcast, which was published connected Thursday, that the modulation was life-changing and the play of piecing her beingness backmost unneurotic was traumatic.

“[I] had successful the end, you know, immoderate beauteous superior psychiatric interventions. I truly did spell into the bottommost of the bottom,” she said.

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Gallagher said it took a doc telling her “you’re going to person a babe successful six weeks, and you’re not going to beryllium capable to attraction for it” for her to get “back together”.

“I thought, ‘I can’t present suffer the baby’. And truthful that, that infinitesimal conscionable that 1 line, that clarity. I thought right, this is for existent now. I’ve got to get myself backmost together,” she said.

“I started taking antidepressants, which … pulled maine retired of the benignant of spread I was in, and by the clip Abby [Gallagher’s daughter] was born, determination was nary 1 who was going to instrumentality that babe from me.”

Gallagher talking astir her intelligence wellness struggles comes aft Morrison confirmed to this masthead and wrote successful his caller book, Plans for Your Good: A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness, that helium took anti-depressants successful 2021.

Morrison said helium dealt with waves of acute anxiousness during a clip erstwhile helium felt “the pile-on truly got nether way”.

In summation to revealing her intelligence wellness struggles, Gallagher besides told Gillard aft the nonaccomplishment of Seaman that members of the Labor Party, of which Seaman was a member, created a consciousness of household and erstwhile premier of Victoria Joan Kirner motivated her to tally for the ACT Legislative Assembly successful 2001.

“I was like, ‘I’ve accidentally been elected’, and we formed authorities astatine that clip arsenic well, truthful yeah,” she said.

“It wasn’t meant to be. I was told it wouldn’t happen, and past erstwhile it did happen, it was a daze to everybody including the caller main curate who I’d ne'er adjacent met, John Stanhope.”

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