Bill undergoing treatment for another bout of depression
10/03/2009 21:00 GMT

Posted by lisa

The Daily Mail is reporting that Bill is being treated at a mental health hospital for another bout of depression.  We all wish him a speedy recovery.

From The Daily Mail


Bill Oddie admitted to psychiatric hospital with depression
By Anna Davis
Last updated at 10:08 AM on 11th March 2009


The TV presenter and conservationist is at the Capio Nightingale hospital near London's Harley Street, where Amy Winehouse has been treated for crack, heroin and Valium addictions.

Oddie, 67, has suffered depression for much of his life and has spoken about it publicly.


His agent David Foster said: 'Bill gets these bouts every two or three years where he gets down for about two weeks and recovers.

'He sometimes goes into hospital or takes a break or has a change of scenery to recharge his batteries.'

A spokesman for the BBC said: 'We wish him a speedy recovery.'

In his autobiography published last year, Oddie wrote: 'While I was writing this book, my brain stopped for a fourth time.

'I started waking up with those all too familiar feelings of anxiety. Not terrified, but nervous, slightly fearful."

He added: 'Filming Springwatch helped  -  my mood always improves when I am out in the great outdoors."

Oddie has written and presented many TV and radio programmes including I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, Twice A Fortnight, Broaden Your Mind, Festival and Ask Oddie but is perhaps best known for his role in Seventies comedy show The Goodies.

Writing about his role in The Goodies last August, Oddie said: "We were not a boy band. We were a thirty-something band. OK, a middle-aged band. I very much doubt if there was any hormonal element involved, it was just Goody mania and, to be honest, it could be pretty exciting, if not a wee bit intoxicating.

"What freaked me out, as we used to say in the Seventies, was the fan in the street. For much of the time, I hated the off-screen attention. Some days I felt as if I was being hunted. By a pack. They were surrounding me, and there was no escape.

"I felt hunted, I felt claustrophobic, and I was resentful that I couldn't just carry on shopping, or going for walks, or to the cinema, or even on holiday, especially with my daughters Kate and Bonnie."

Edited to add: The story has been picked up by other major papers as well.  The articles are pretty much the same, other than the file photos accompanying them.

The Telegraph

The Mirror