Stephen Fry says he felt ‘guilt and shame’ after attempting suicide: 'You feel such a fool'

Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer life Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “In your recovery, in the fact you realise people are kind enough to forgive you, because you feel such a fool and you feel you’ve done it to them – all the guilt and shame that comes from an attempt on one’s life that’s gone wrong – and it’s in the recovery, it’s when you suddenly find that flavour, and life has colour again,” Fry explained, before crediting Ludwig Van Beethoven’s classical music with helping him at the time. “Beethoven is a perfect example of someone who brings that colour back to you quicker than almost anything else and that’s a sign you’re back,” Fry said. “There is a healing quality to it that helps.when combined with not drinking too much and walking and eating properly and the other things that supposedly help one’s mental health.” This is not the first time Fry has spoken about his mental health struggles. “There was and still is, and I still feel it occasionally, a danger of becoming sort of professionally mentally unstable, and that’s what I am, that’s who I am,” he said at the time.