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Watch: Voice host Eoghan McDermott bravely reveals self-harming past

Voice star Eoghan McDermott has revealed he self-harmed after a relationship breakup left him extremely depressed.

The TV presenter, 30, admitted his long-term love’s decision to leave him “really affected” him but he failed to tell anyone his feelings.

He said: “I bottled it up and took all these negative emotions and stored them inside myself.

“And that manifested in me doing something self-destructive, which was self-harming.

“And I think when you’re at a stage in a scenario and you feel like getting something sharp and raking it over your skin is a logical, reasonable option then you have got a problem.”

The RTE host admitted it particularly hurt so much because he never expected that his ex-girlfriend would ever leave him.

He said: “At the time when that happened a few years ago it really affected me, because I invested a lot of time and energy into it and it was going well, I thought, and then it didn’t happen.

Kathryn-Thomas-and-Eoghan-McDermot

The Voice: Working alongside Kathryn Thomas

“It was like a tidal wave had come along and smashed me over and all these ideas and senses I had of myself were all scattered and you’re desperately trying to hang onto them and pull them back.

“You think you’re on a level footing and there’s debris in the water which knocks you over and scatters everything again.”

And Eoghan – who works alongside Kathryn Thomas on The Voice – revealed in an honest YouTube video that his friends knew something was wrong but didn’t know how bad it was.

He added: “I found it quite hard, but I wasn’t able to talk about it. I had friends who knew there was something going on, but when they broached it with me I reverted into myself and wouldn’t talk about it.

“So they couldn’t really help, even though they knew something was up. I wasn’t volunteering the information.”

However Eoghan – who is supporting Pieta House’s Dark Into Light charity event on May 10 – now knows that he should have spoke to someone and feels lucky he didn’t hurt himself more.

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Opening up: Eoghan tells of self-harming past

He said: “You need to talk to someone. But at the time I didn’t see that, that’s how clouded my judgement was. I thought it was normal, and I was just in a bad place.

“But it never occurred to me at the time that I maybe needed professional help. Thankfully for me it passed, because everything else in my life was okay.

“But I’m completely convinced there are other people who would have encountered something who have other problems also going on, and that would be enough to bring them to a dark place where something worse would happen.”

And Eoghan now wants men to know the “obvious, logical thing” should be to ask for help.

He added: “We’re just reluctant to ask for help. I don’t know if it’s ego, I don’t know if it’s pride or something in our genetic makeup. But men do not ask for help.

“That has to change because if you broke your leg you would go to a hospital, but if you have a problem with your mind there’s some big stigma around it.”

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