Former Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison recognized this Friday that during his mandate, between August 2018 and May 2022, he took medication to cope with anxiety that was “weakening” him and that helped him avoid falling into depression.

“It was a very stressful period and the combination of the weight of the problems, the number of hours we were working, the physical demands that came with it, and to be honest, things in China were just as distressing, if not more so, than the pandemic. “You are flesh and blood and that would begin to impact me,” Morrison writes in an excerpt from his memoirs published by The Australian.

During the years he remained in office, the Australian president had a tense relationship with China, the southern country’s main trading partner, which led the Asian nation to impose tariffs on numerous Australian products. The discord between Beijing and Canberra began when the Morrison Government banned the implementation of 5G services from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE in 2018 for security reasons, although it reached its peak when Australia tried to promote an independent investigation into the origin of covid-19.

In response, China imposed a series of trade restrictions on various Australian products since 2020, which have been relaxing in recent months after severely impacting the oceanic country’s economy. The island-nation, like the rest of the countries in the world, was also affected by the global health crisis, which in Australia left around 20,000 dead (according to official figures) despite implementing strict restrictions that were highly criticized.

“My doctor was surprised that I had lasted this long before seeking help. Without this help, serious depression would have manifested.. “What struck me was the combination of sheer physical exhaustion with the relentless, callous brutality of politics and media attacks,” Morrison said.

The former prime minister, who will publish his memoirs titled “Plans for Your Good: A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness,” tried other methods to cope with his anxiety, such as swimming and cooking, but they were not enough. “You fear the future and you can’t get out of bed. He can paralyze you mentally and physically,” confesses the former politician, who retired last January, admitting for the first time in public the problems he suffered.

“Sharing my story aims to encourage others and normalize and destigmatize what is very common for many Australians. Of course it was difficult, but my faith, my family and the help I sought allowed me to continue with the work,” Morrison exhorts in X when promoting his book.

Like Morrison, other politicians have opened up about their problems in power. Among them, former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who resigned in 2023 after confessing to feeling “exhausted” or former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who acknowledged that she had suicidal thoughts in 2009 when she was leader of the opposition.

In Spain, the president, Pedro Sanchez, announced on Wednesday in a letter to citizens that he needed a few days to “reflect” whether he continues to lead the Government as a result of the “strategy of harassment and demolition” by conservative groups against him. and his wife, Begoña Gómez, “politically and personally.”