Carmen Lee didn’t shower for a week, wandered around cemetery during 10-year battle with depression
BRYAN WONG
Published April 4, 2024
Updated April 4, 2024
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Hong Kong actress Carman Lee has never shied away from sharing about her battle with depression.
Best known for her turn as Little Dragon Girl in the 1995 TVB series The Return of the Condor Heroes, Carman struggled with depression for a decade after her split with her boyfriend of 10 years and her father's death from illness in 2009.
The 57-year-old opened up about some of her darkest moments during a press conference earlier this week.
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Carman said she did not leave the house and would sometimes not shower or brush her teeth for a week.
“I felt like a robot. I went through the motions of eating, sleeping, and breathing [because I actually didn’t want to]. I didn’t care about anything,” said Carman.
She once drove herself to the cemetery in the middle of the night and wandered around aimlessly.
“I felt like a zombie with no motivation to live. I only left when I spotted the police,” she said.
Other odd behaviour include staring down from her apartment on the 27th floor and talking to the knife as she was cutting fruits.
Carman described her eating habits as erratic, saying she had the tendency to binge eat, once consuming two Swiss rolls in a sitting before unconsciously vomiting everything out.
And it didnt help that she was then tabloid fodder.
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She credits her family and friends for helping her recover and also found solace in fitness.
Calling it a lifesaver, she said that whenever she felt unwell, she would visit to the gym and temporarily forget about the pain.
She believes that only with inner balance and a structured life can one gradually restore both physical and mental health.
Following her revelation, Carman received received an outpouring of support from netizens.
“Thank you for being so brave and giving us your positive energy. It is good to see you in such a healthy state now,” wrote one user.
“Thanks gu gu for teaching us a valuable lesson,” commented another. Gu Gu, or auntie in Chinese, is what the Little Dragon Girl is known as to her love interest Yang Guo.
