Harrison Ford Reveals He Suffered Clinical Depression in College: ‘I Was Socially Ill’

Harrison Ford is opening up about his past struggles with clinical depression. In an interview for The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, the esteemed actor was candid about the mental health struggles he faced while attending Ripon College in Wisconsin in the early 1960s. At the time, Ford said his social isolation led him to exhibit symptoms of depression.

“I had a single room, and I had classes to go to, but I rarely ventured out. I would get up out of my single bed, go to a phone, order a pizza, go back and lie down in bed until the pizza came. I would eat the pizza, throw the wrappers in the corner, go back to sleep,” Ford said. “On the rare occasion I did go to the classroom, I would often touch the door on the outside of the building, and turn around and walk back,” he continued. “I was more than depressed. I think I was ill. I was socially ill, psychologically not well,” the actor added.
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Ford went on to explain that this dark period of his life actually led to his discovery of the acting world. “I never found a community at college until I accidentally — in an attempt to get my grade-point-average up — took a class called ‘drama’ without reading the full description of the class,” he said on the podcast. From there, the acting legend was forced into the craft and quickly found his knack. “I think I simply found my place amongst storytellers. It really changed my world, changed my life,” Ford said.

Nearly a decade after college, Ford would star in the film that kicked off his acting career, American Graffiti, and introduce him to another person who would change his life: George Lucas, creator of Star Wars and Indiana Jones.