TV host Osher Gunsberg opens up on mental illness and how his sex drive was impacted

THE BACHELOR host Osher Gunsberg has opened up about life, love and mental illness and the toll his anti-psychosis medication took on his relationship, intimacy and sex life with his wife.

THE Bachelor host Osher Gunsberg has opened up about life, love and mental illness and the toll his anti-­psychosis medication took on his relationship.

The 44-year-old who has just released his autobiography Back, After The Break says it’s vital people know the ­impact medication has on a person’s intimacy and sex drive.

“People want their wives and husbands to get better and feel better … but (when they’re medicated) they’re not interested in sex,” Gunsberg said during a discussion hosted by Stellar magazine yesterday.

Osher Gunsberg has just released his tell-all biography on his life. Picture: Supplied

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“The drugs turn down the really intense thoughts, but they also turn down sexual ­desire and that sucks.

“It’s nice not to be crazy, but it’s wasn’t great to be fat and frigid. I was putting on a kilo a week as well. I was riding 250 kilometres a week up and down Topanga Canyon (in California) and I was still putting on weight because it messes with your body’s ability to metabolise food.

“I’m so grateful to my wife Audrey for letting me write about that stuff, it’s so important to talk about it.”

He is grateful his wife Audrey Griffen let him write stories about their intimacy and sex life. Picture: Instagram/@osher_gunsberg

His wife has been by his side during highs and lows. Picture: Rob Maccoll

He revealed he was initially diagnosed with social phobia and generalised anxiety disorder which he thought he “could manage well with ­alcohol”.

“Eventually the amount I needed to feel anywhere near normal became completely unmanageable and very unhealthy and it was very clear where it was going to end up if I didn’t stop,” he said.

He began experiencing paranoid delusions and psychosis — seeing things that weren’t there and warning people of this “impending doom”.

Gunsberg’s biography Back, After the Break is available online and in book stores. Picture: Supplied

“It was terribly frightening and I was in a great amount of physical pain, at times I have felt hands around my throat and pressure on my chest and it’s very odd to feel that.”

Gunsberg was eventually prescribed drugs for obsessive compulsive disorder, which he believes is when he started to heal.

“What people don’t realise is that what they’re watching on television (is) this bloke who’s … on two ­different kinds of ­antipsychotics.”