Sagal’s 7 p.m. Sunday [Nov. 13] talk, ‘Conservations About Mental Health’ at ‘No Shame On U’ Fundraiser Aims to Give Hope and Counter Stigmas
BY SANDRA GUY
Peter Sagal, host of National Public Radio’s popular news quiz program “Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” is revealing his own personal story about struggling with — and being OK living with — depression.
Sagal grew up in an educated family of second- and third-generation immigrants in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, where his parents had high expectations of their sons.
“We had every advantage. We were bright,” he said of himself and his two brothers. They benefited from great schools and, for Sagal, top-notch standardized test scores that got him into Harvard College.
But before his successful career as an author, humorist, producer, screenwriter and top-rated NPR show host, Sagal experienced his first struggle with mental health when he was in high school. He developed an eating disorder that led him to lose 20 pounds, leaving 140 pounds on his 5-foot-7” frame.
“I starved myself and started excessively running,” he said. In fact, Sagal ran seven miles a day and refused to eat fats or carbohydrates.
People dismissed the situation, and complimented him on getting in shape.
“I got lucky. I grew out of it,” Sagal said. “I got distracted by having friends and things to do, and even by having a girlfriend.”
And though Sagal continues to exercise obsessively — he says he still feels ‘inflated’ when he skips his daily workout routine — he realizes that exercise becomes problematic when it’s used to cover up a psychic injury or to fill an emotional hole.
“There’s a thin but important line between wanting to improve yourself physically and wanting to destroy yourself physically because you don’t like yourself,” said Sagal, who at age 57, weighs a healthy 180. “It’s a way of coping with a sense of self-loathing.”
The man who charms millions of the Peabody Award-winning “Wait Wait’s” live audience, podcast and radio listeners each week, said he has learned to recognize when he fears or sees the worst in a situation, which leads to “making mountains out of tiny molehills.”
But he also has learned to recognize when he needs professional help.
When his first marriage was dissolving in 2013, just shy of his 19th wedding anniversary and just after his 48th birthday, Sagal said, “I don’t think that I would have been able to make it without medical intervention and regular help.”
He has benefited from taking anti-depressants. And now that he’s expecting his second child in his second marriage, he feels “gifted this chance to do it better the second time around.”
“Damages have been done that cannot be undone,” he said, noting that his divorce involved separating from his three daughters. “For some things in this life, you can’t know until you’ve been through it.”
Sagal is committed to sharing his experience, and he urges others to do so.
“Nobody alive is dealing with something that has never been dealt with by other people. It could be a chronic illness, death of a child, a floundering marriage or an unsatisfactory job.
There are people out there who fixed the marriage or had the courage to end it. They can give advice.
“I don’t think there are any secrets to life, but there is wisdom to be had.”