JK Rowling contemplated suicide as a struggling single mother

London, Mar 23 : Harry Potter author JK Rowling has revealed that she contemplated suicide while suffering from depression as a struggling single mother.

During her twenties, Rowling was a single mother struggling financially and emotionally after her separation from first husband, Jorge Arantes, a Portuguese journalist.

And it was then that the author, who has gathered a personal fortune estimated at 545 million pounds, considered taking her life.

In a recent interview, the 42-year-old writer said she received cognitive behavioural therapy after descending into suicidal thoughts.

"Mid-twenties life circumstances were poor and I really plummeted," Times Online quoted Rowling, as telling Adeel Amini, who writes for an Edinburgh student magazine.

"The thing that made me go for help . . . was probably my daughter. She was something that earthed me, grounded me, and I thought, this isn't right, this can't be right, she cannot grow up with me in this state," she added.

The author claimed that her regular Edinburgh GP was away and a stand-in doctor failed to help her.

"She said, 'If you ever feel a bit low, come and speak to the practice nurse' and dismissed me. We're talking suicidal thoughts here, we're not talking 'I'm a little bit miserable,'" Rowling said.

"Two weeks later I had a phone call from my regular GP who had looked back over the notes . . . She called me back in and I got counselling through her.

"She absolutely saved me because I don't think I would have had the guts to go and do it twice," she added. Rowling has previously spoken of her struggles with depression but had not discussed suicidal urges.

She received praise from mental health campaigners following the revelation.

ANI