Lee Jae-yong revealed his past experience of suffering from depression.

In a video released on the YouTube channel ’What are you up to these days’ on the 20th, Lee Jae-yong stated in response to actor Jo Sang-gu’s question that he was diagnosed with depression in his early to mid-30s while doing theater. He said he took antidepressants for more than 7 to 8 years.

Lee Jae-yong mentioned his experience of conducting psychodrama sessions at a psychiatric hospital with the children he was teaching to make a living. He said he requested to study the patients in the hospital in exchange for conducting psychodrama. He also had the opportunity to tour a closed ward and recalled being shocked by seeing patients who seemed to have been stripped of even their last human dignity.

He said at the time, ″I was filled with anger,″ and that he once caused a scene out of resentment toward the patients during a dinner with the doctors who conducted the psychodrama. Lee Jae-yong went on to say that he went through a difficult period when the reality of being a theater actor, poverty, and shock all came at once. The doctor who diagnosed his depression advised him to be hospitalized and rest for ten days, but he revealed that he had to juggle production and work.

Lee Jae-yong added, ″Even now, I think I lived like a madman, like a half-madman,″ saying he went through many precarious and critical moments.