‘Skins’ actor Mitch Hewer opens up about battle with OCD, anxiety, and depression

Former Skins actor Mitch Hewer has explained his absence from posting on social media in recent years, citing experiences with anxiety, depression, and OCD.

• READ MORE: ‘Am I depressed?’ – help and advice on mental health and what to do next

The 29-year-old star, who portrayed Maxxie Oliver in series 1 and 2 (2007-2008) of the popular E4 drama, opened up on Instagram yesterday (April 2).

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For many years now people always ask me why I stopped posting, being active online or why I stopped my YouTube channel and decided to hide. The answer is something had been creeping up on me and my ability to be creative started to lack more and more every day, insecurity took the place of confidence and my self belief and self esteem slowly drifted away. Those things that had been knocking on my door were depression and anxiety. I had experienced more set backs in my personal life and more rejections from work than I could handle. The only thing I knew what to do was to hide away, so I did. I always thought I needed to be in a better place, be more successful, be further in my career, be happier, look perfect, That I should have Accomplished more by now. I would question myself with “why are you not happy like everyone else?”. I put so much pressure on myself. Over time I picked up another mental health problem, one I do not wish upon anyone, OCD. I still struggle with it every day. It would stop me leaving the house, always being late for things, hiding away from being scared of something not being “right”. These things still try to taunt me everyday and try to question why I’m here and what I’m doing. But I’ve finally decided to stop listening to those voices. Don’t get me wrong, this didn’t happen over night, wasn’t as easy as turning off a light, it took a very long time. I’d been in a dark place, the darkest. So to fast forward to right now, I am not perfect, I am far from perfect and in all honesty I don’t wanna be perfect anymore, it was exhausting. I realised there’s a reason to be here. Life is a beautiful gift, you just have to let yourself see it. Acknowledge the small things that bring you joy in each day, Don’t look for happiness because you will fail, just notice the little things that make you smile and feel alive. Then Happiness will find you. Take the bad times and understand the lesson they give you, then move forward from yesterday, live every second of the now and if tomorrow comes.. thank your god for the best present one could give. Time. It’s the only thing worth any value. So here’s to new beginnings ??❤️ #mentalhealth

A post shared by Mitch Hewer ?? (@mitchhewer1) on Apr 2, 2019 at 12:49pm PDT

Part of his message reads: “For many years now people always ask me why I stopped posting, being active online or why I stopped my YouTube channel and decide to hide. The answer is something had been creeping up on me and my ability to be creative started to lack more and more every day, insecurity took the place of confidence and my self belief and self esteem slowly drifted away. Those things that had been knocking on my door were depression and anxiety. I had experienced more set backs in my personal life and more rejections from work than I could handle. The only thing I knew what to do was to hide away, so I did.”

He added: “I’ve finally decided to stop listening to those voices. Don’t get me wrong, this didn’t happen over night, wasn’t as easy as turning off a light, it took a very long time. I’d been in a dark place, the darkest.

“Don’t look for happiness because you will fail, just notice the little things that make you smile and feel alive. Then Happiness will find you.”

Hewer starred in the 2014 film Behaving Badly, 2015’s Nightlight and in recent years appeared in BBC hospital drama, Casualty.

FOR HELP AND ADVICE ON MENTAL HEALTH:

• YOUNG MINDS – The voice for young people’s health and wellbeing
• MIND – For mental health support, advice and awareness
• CALM – The Campaign Against Living Miserably for young men
• Time To Change – Let’s end mental health discrimination
• The Samaritans – Confidential support 24 hours a day