Paul Johansson: Depression & Alcoholism on One Tree Hill, 2003-2012

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL –

Dec. 21, 2023 – Paul explained: “[My mental health] was awful. I was … I’ve never spoken about this before … I was deeply depressed and I was drinking … I go from lean basketball [player] body to someone who looked like he ate Dan Scott. I am literally waddling my way into the wardrobe … Because I was drinking a couple bottles of wine a night by myself … At my house … For about six or seven years, it was really tough.” He went on to suggest that playing a bad guy in the show contributed to his mental health issues.

Paul added: “It was just a time when I think I was absorbing the energy of the people that were looking at me, and seeing me as something that’s bad and not goof. I’m an actor. I’m thin-skinned, I’m sensitive, I’m vulnerable to criticism … when I read things on the Internet I cry sometimes. I can’t take it. I’m not built to hear it … I’m just too sensitive … “

Paul went on to insist he had to move on from the show in order to get better: “To get out of it, the way to do it was the show had to end for me. I needed to get out and to get other characters and feel other things, but then I was getting bad guy roles again because of that show. It put me in a box.”

Paul added of his mental health battle: “You need support and you need to be aware you’re depressed. You stop working out, you stop returning phone calls. you sleep in. There are signs. It’s not laziness. It’s your brain, it’s beat up…”