Days of our Lives and Bold and the Beautiful alum Linsey Godfrey was the latest guest to grace the sofa of General Hospital star Maurice Benard’s YouTube videocast, State Of Mind. The two actors spoke openly and honestly about their individual journeys toward mental health — and so much more.
Linsey Godfrey Talks Mental Health
When Godfrey left the DAYS canvas as the beloved Sarah Horton, fans were aghast. How could she? The Internet sent out a collective cry. Even head writer Ron Carlivati called her a positive light in the world and thanked her for always being so kind to her number one fan — his father.
It soon became clear that the actress had a lot on her plate and Benard (Sonny, GH) wanted to address it on his latest episode. “Linsey is a survivor, a mother, and a mental health advocate.” Benard warmly introduced Linsey Godfrey, “She’s beaten cancer, a debilitating car accident, and is now focused on de-stigmatizing mental health after being diagnosed with Bipolar II and Borderline Personality Disorder.”
Linsey Godfrey was very open about her struggle with mental health, how she self-medicated and rationalized for a decade with her issues. She talked about what drove her to finally seek treatment. “Work was hard because if I am kinda going through a depression with the bipolar, and the borderline decides to add onto it, then I am just gone,” Godfrey explained.
“I am hopeless, and there is nothing worth living for, and I don’t understand why I am doing this.” She went on to explain, “I don’t want to be doing this. I don’t want to talk to anybody and I don’t want to do this scene. I don’t want to talk to this person. And god, I don’t want to hug them. That was the hardest thing. And not knowing why for a long time.”
Maurice Benard, who is a vocal advocate for mental health, complimented her on her strength and shared a little about his own battle. “I haven’t had a breakdown in 30 years but anxiety is my Freddy Krueger. And when I am in that kind of anxiety, I am not proud of it. So how do you feel about it?”
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“Really, the best thing that could have ever happened to me was having a nervous breakdown at the end of 2019,” Linsey Godfrey responded. “And finally admitting I can’t control my emotions. I didn’t know who I was anymore.”
Getting Up Again And Giving Back
Godfrey talked about being run down by a car on a sidewalk in Los Angeles. “In my head, I am so worried about being too dramatic,” she said. “So I am thinking, I feel like I should run but is it dramatic of me if I run?” She described the accident that almost derailed her life. “No, I definitely should run! So I ran. It turns out that I can’t Hilary Swank/Karate Kid the car. I can’t outrun it. It hit me in the left leg and threw me to the right. My left leg was bent at a 90-degree angle.”
“It was a long healing process.” She described returning to the set of The Bold and the Beautiful, portraying Caroline Spencer Forrester, during her rehabilitation. “I went back to Bold at the time, in a wheelchair. My daughter and I learned to walk at the same time.”
She also spoke extensively about her work with the organization, INARA — which stands for The International Network for Aid and Assistance. “We provide pro bono medical care for children living in refugee camps. Mostly Syrian children who had to flee and are now living in Lebanon or Turkey. The founder is Arwa Damon who is a CNN reporter who is stationed in Turkey.
“After seeing these horrible injuries when she was reporting, she decided to do something about it. She started this incredible foundation that we always need donations for,” explained Linsey Godfrey. She spoke of the special need for assistance, “We added in mental health because of having to flee and have no consistency, takes such a toll on the mental health of such a tiny little person, getting made fun of in school because of having burn scars all over them or being deformed in some way because of something horrific that happened to them.”
You can learn more about INARA here. To watch the entire interview and find out about Linsey Godfrey’s journey as a young actress in Hollywood, leaving home at an early age, rooming with This Is Us’s Chrissy Metz, how much she learned from her mother’s positive attitude during her struggle with cancer, and much more, click here. You can also watch a preview on the Instagram post below.
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