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Eric Dane is opening up about his battle with depression.
During an appearance on the Today show Monday, the Grey’s Anatomy alum spoke candidly about his struggles, which prompted him to take a break from his TNT series The Last Ship in April.
“I took some time off — I was dealing with some depression, which was kind of odd to me,” he said. “I felt very conflicted about it because I didn’t really feel like I had anything to be depressed about.”
“Now I take a medication called Pristiq, which I thought just sounded like a good mood,” he added. “And the depression is gone.”
The father of two also stressed how important it is for people battling similar issues to address them head-on.
“You’ve got to listen to your body,” he said. “It’s a very serious thing. Like I said, I felt very conflicted because I couldn’t figure out what I was depressed about. But it’s very real.”
Dane, 44, who went to rehab in 2011 for an addiction to painkillers, has been open about his personal struggles over the years. According to the actor, this time, his depression hit him much harder than it has before.
“That was a scary thing, when you wake up and you’re like: ‘I don’t want to get out of bed,’ ” he recalled. “I was seeing these doctors thinking that there was something physically wrong with me, because I’d never felt like that.”
“I mean, I’d dealt with depression throughout my life, but it was always manageable,” he said. “I just felt like, you know, everybody kind of feels a little blue. But this just hit me like a truck. I had to take some time off — I went away, I took care of it, and I’m feeling great.”
Production on The Last Ship halted in late April. At the time, a rep for Dane, who plays Captain Tom Chandler on the TNT series, announced the actor would be stepping away to seek treatment for depression.
“Eric asked for a break to deal with personal issues,” his rep said in a statement. “He suffers from depression and has asked for a few weeks of downtime and the producers kindly granted that request. He looks forward to returning.”
The Last Ship season 4 premieres Aug. 20 at 9 p.m. ET on TNT.
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