Samuel Johnson tells of how he has faced his mental health struggles and battle with alcohol

Gold Logie winner Samuel Johnson has opened up about his struggle with alcohol, admitting he hasn’t given up drinking entirely. But he’s found a way to manage it.

One minute Secret Life of Us star Samuel Johnson was getting his first taste of freedom after lockdown, the next his partner had his life in her hands as she frantically tried to hold his shattered skull together.

It was 2021 and the Gold Logie winner and his girlfriend Em were on a roadtrip to visit a close mate after the pandemic restrictions finally lifted.

Samuel Johnson almost died in a car accident.

Johnson had stopped on the side of the road for a toilet break when he was hit by a car.

The Gold Logie winner told of his incredible tale of survival of not just the accident but also his struggles with mental health to ABC’s Australian Story.

“Me and my missus call it the good accident,” Johnson told Australia Story.

“Because even though I nearly died and there’s some major issues there, a little knock on the head kind of balanced everything out just nicely.”

Sam Johnson told of his tale of survival to ABC’s Australian Story. Picture: ABC

While Johnson, who is also acclaimed for his depiction of Molly Meldrum, has been doing incredible things with his charity Love Your Sister which he launched in honour of his sister Connie who died from breast cancer.

Samuel Johnson with his sister, Connie Johnson, in 2013.

He’s continuing to raise money for his charity Love Your Sister. Picture: Nigel Hallett

But despite this good work, he’d also been experiencing personal struggles.

Diagnosed with depression and bipolar, the recovering addict often beat himself up about his past – including a number of brushes with the law.

“When I woke up from my accident, I couldn’t believe how much Em cared for me,” he said. “I woke up and just went, ‘Wow, I’m not awful.’

“She really cares for me. I just realised when I woke up from the accident that um, that I was alright, and that I needed to, uh, I needed to make sure that I cared for her as well as she cared for me.”

While the accident may have given Johnson the gift of perspective, recovery was no easy feat.

“I don’t remember what happened, but Em does,” Johnson said.

She was holding my head together while the ambulance came. They found ground glass in my lungs. A 1.3cm gap in my occipital bone, which is part of your skull. Three fractures in my neck.”

But finally, through Em’s love and his second chance at life, Johnson is determined to stop the self flagellation.

“I put the whip away a few times over the decades, but, um, I think it’s pretty much gone now. I think it’s pretty much gone now,” he said.

Samuel Johnson, Melissa Leong and Costa Georgiadis in a scene from the SBS documentary The Hospital: In the Deep End.

Johnson also opened up about his struggle with alcohol, admitting he hasn’t given up drinking entirely.

“The problem is that I really love alcohol. It’s fun. But I like it a little too much,” he said.

“One day I hope to cold turkey it. But I’m OK with it in my life as it is.

“Things definitely aren’t as bad as they were, but I’m not going to peddle some bullshit redemptive narrative here.”

Johnson calls Tallarook home, a town with a population of less than 1000 people about an hour north of Melbourne.

He described that he had found peace there, and even volunteers as the local postman.

Johnson tugged at the heart strings when he spoke about his mother, of whom he has no memory.

The only traces he has of her life are poems she had written. Johnson called them “clues”.

He made the discovery in his father’s filing cabinet when he was 20 years old.

“I’ve built my picture of her through the pictures that she paints in her poetry,” he said.

“ It’s just the most beautiful, painful little rainbow thing.”

He shared the final verse of a poem she had addressed to him, - titled ‘For Samuel Johnson’-, just months before she died by suicide.

“All the seas of joy rise to sing for you boy,” she wrote.

“Surge and swell and roar.

“All the seas of joy sound wonderfully near.

“Since you’ve been here.”

If you or anyone you know needs support, call Lifeline on 131 114 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.

Originally published as Samuel Johnson tells of how he has faced his mental health struggles and battle with alcohol