An open book. Naomi Judd spoke out about her struggle with depression and mental illness before she died in April 2022 at the age of 75.
“[Fans] see me in rhinestones, you know, with glitter in my hair, that really is who I am,” the musician told Good Morning America’s Robin RobertsDecember 2016. “But then I would come home and not leave the house for three weeks, and not get out of my pajamas, and not practice normal hygiene. It was really bad.”
The former Judds member — who detailed her depression issues in her 2016 River of Time memoir — told The Palm Beach PostShe struggled with the idea of ending her own life during her lowest days.
“I know what it’s like to go down to the bridge and be ready to jump off,” she told the outlet in 2016, noting that she was fighting to come out on top. “It’s going through it that’s exquisitely harrowing. You need someone to watch you and make sure you are taking the right medications. My husband [Larry Strickland] hasn’t let me out of his sight in two-and-a-half years.”
Naomi sang with her eldest child, Wynonna JuddShe was in the band for almost a decade before she decided to stop performing in 1991 due to her Hepatitis C diagnosis. Later, the duo reunited for several shows and another album. However, Naomi began to struggle with severe depression in 2010.
“I’m trying to start a national conversation about depression and anxiety,” she told Today’s Savannah GuthrieWhile promoting her December 2017 book. “There are 43 million of us out there. I want to let the world know that it’s not a character flaw. It’s a disease.”
The “Girls Night Out” musician added: “We don’t make enough of the good neurochemicals in the brain. It’s a disease. It has nothing to do with our character.”
Naomi noted that Naomi’s public persona couldn’t hide the truth about her head. That is when she started seeking treatment.
“I used [to] say to myself, looking in the mirror, ‘I’m Naomi freaking Judd. I got this.’ I even wrote it out and taped it there,” she wrote in a December 2017 essay for NBC News. “But when the problem is your brain, when the problem involves the way that you’re thinking and the way you’re living every day of your life, you can’t pull that off anymore.”
Her family also includes her daughter Ashley JuddEventually, he intervened to help her.
“Ashley is so grounded, so she was more administrative. She was on the phone booking flights, telling me, ‘OK, Mom. This is what we’re going to do now.’ Wy is more emotional: She would come over and get in bed with me, and just hug me, and hold on to me,” Naomi recalled. “And Larry is so constant; he was always there for me. If I was somewhere in treatment, he would get the closest motel, and be there with me every visiting hour.”
The “Love Can Build a Bridge” singer appeared to be in better spirits in early 2022 when she and Wynonna, 57, performed at the CMT Music Awards that April, marking their last duet together. Later that month, her daughters confirmed her passing on April 30.
Scroll down to see Naomi’s most poignant quotes about mental health through the years:
