Emma Thompson admits to past depression

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LONDON, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- British actress Emma Thompson has revealed that in the past she has struggled with depression.

The 47-year-old actress admitted that, due in part to her attempts to have children, she has been left so depressed that she could not wash herself or change clothes, the Daily Mail reported.

"It's the sort of depression that doesn't necessarily make you want to kill yourself -- you just don't want to be, you want to switch it off and stop," Thompson said. "That's not the same as saying 'I'm going to kill myself.' But it's a feeling I know well."

The two-time Oscar winner said her attempts at in vitro fertilization and the eventual birth of her daughter, Gaia, played an integral role in her depression.

"The work I've done since Gaia was born has been quite intense at times, and it fed into a sort of postnatal depression that sent me right off the edge," the "Stranger than Fiction" star confessed.

Thompson told the newspaper that she has found an effective way to balance herself emotionally.