‘Schitt's Creek's' Annie Murphy Says Depression Medication 'Saved My Life’

It seems as if people who have glib but well-meaning suggestions for managing depression, like exercising and being positive, can fuck themselves. At least for Annie Murphy.

Unlike her light and frothy Alexis Rose character in “Schitt’s Creek,” Murphy had had a difficult struggle as she initially dealt with her diagnosis of depression until she began to take medication for it, she revealed to The Zoe Report in a profile published Tuesday

She told the personal style site that she began feeling down during the “Schitt’s Creek” live farewell tour in January 2020 and felt as if she had to force herself to go through the motions. She was slated to start filming her new role in “Kevin Can F**k Himself” in March 2020, but because of the coronavirus pandemic she found herself in her parents’ home in Canada on lockdown and unable to do much of anything.

“My mom was like, ‘You’re crying 12 times a day hysterically, to the point where your teeth are chattering. That’s not normal,’” she said.

The 34-year-old actor said she began seeing a therapist, who diagnosed her with depression.

“I was like, ‘Damn it, I’m depressed,’” she said. “Ugh.”

Murphy told the website that she doesn’t want to come off as “playing a tiny violin for myself” due to assumptions that she should be happy because she’s “rich and famous.” But she noted that if everything had stayed on schedule for filming it would’ve been a disaster for her mental state.

“I do not think if I had gone to work [on ‘Kevin’] when I was supposed to go to work, I would have been able to do my job,” she admitted.

But she said that thanks to the pandemic break, therapy and antidepressants, she began to feel like herself again.

“I do not cry every single day on the floor 12 times,” Murphy said. “I am able to focus on other things in my life. Now, honestly, if a friend’s like, ‘I’m having a really hard time,’ I’m like, ‘Get on drugs. Get on drugs!’ You don’t have to be on drugs for the whole time, but they truly, truly saved my life in the sense that I was not a functional human being and I was able to be a functional human being.”

Murphy flew to the set of “Kevin Can F**k Himself” a day after winning her Emmy for her role as Alexis in “Schitt’s Creek” last fall. She told TZR that she is proud of the work she’s done as Allison McRoberts, a working-class Worcester, Massachusetts, housewife, in her new genre-breaking AMC series.

“Not to toot my own horn, because I fucking hate that, but I do feel a sense of resilience, both from Allison but also being in a real messy mental state going into it,” she said.

Head over to The Zoe Report to read Annie Murphy’s profile in full.