Usually, Maurice Benard is accompanied by a guest on his YouTube series State of Mind. However, in a new episode titled “True Friendship,” Maurice Benard who plays Sonny Corinthos on General Hospital opens up about his recent mental health battle that led him to take some time away (albeit short) from the show.
Right after his opening remarks, he began to explain, “About a month ago, anxiety came knocking. Of course, I couldn’t tell the triggers, and a lot of that is my fault for not going to therapy like I should. Everybody should, and you know it’s just one of those things. Plus, I was playing a character on General Hospital that is bipolar and off his medication, but I’m not going to say that was the reason. That may have been a little bit of the reason — the main reason was that I started feeling anxiety, and then my son and my wife went to Europe. They’re the two people who, when I’m going through anything, can talk me out of it or talk me down — so they’re gone — now I’m doing this basically alone, and the anxiety started ramping up.
At night, I’d wake up in the middle of the night shaking, and then I couldn’t get back to sleep, so basically I was just not sleeping well. I was taking medication, but eventually that wasn’t working.”
Maurice Benard’s Time Away Could’ve Led to A Recast
Maurice also vividly remembered reaching out to a friend one night, who in turn contacted another friend, and together they fervently prayed for the actor. The intense battle compelled Benard to take a two-week hiatus from work. “I knew I had to go to work… and I knew I couldn’t go to work, the way I was feeling,”
Maurice went on to praise GH executive producer Frank Valentini for being so generous and understanding. “If I had to stay away another week, they would have had to recast.”
In the video, he gave thanks to Steve Burton (Jason, GH), Jonathan Jackson (Lucky), Vanessa Marcil (Brenda), his wife Paula, his son Joshua, his daughter Cassidy and more. Watch the video below to hear Maurice Benard discuss his resilient journey through mental health challenges, which led him to take some time away from General Hospital.
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