Dave Hughes calls Derryn Hinch ‘a wanker’ as Q&A turns into TV confessional over booze, drugs and depression

Q&A turned into a TV confessional last night, as comedian Dave Hughes revealed his battle with drugs and got stuck into a fellow panellist.

COMEDIAN Dave Hughes has revealed that he once thought he had schizophrenia, opening up about his battle with alcohol and marijuana.

“When I was 21, I was drinking heavily and smoking marijuana and having sort of episodes at night, and I said to my mum that I think I’ve got schizophrenia,” Hughes said on the ABC’s Q&A program last night.

“We went to the doctor together – she was a beautiful mother - obviously, she helped me out. The doctor, we had a chat about it. I told him I smoked marijuana and he told me, made me stop doing that. And I did, stopped smoking marijuana and I stopped drinking.

“When I walked out of that doctor’s surgery I felt so much better just at having told people about it.

“That was the road to recovery. It started then.”

TV confessional ... Comedian Dave Hughes opened up on the Q&A panel.

Last night’s program focused on depression, suicide and substance abuse and became something of a TV confessional for the panel, which also included federal MP Andrew Robb, who suffers from depression, and TV and radio personality Derryn Hinch, who once described himself as a “professional drunk.”

Prime Minister Tony Abbott was skewered for his weekend beer skol as the talk turned to Australia’s culture of binge drinking.

Hinch, who underwent a liver transplant after a storied battle with the booze, was less than impressed with pictures of the PM necking a schooner to cheers from the young pub crowd.

“ If that makes you an Aussie bloke, I don’t want to be one,” he said.

Comedian Hughes agreed.

“I don’t drink at all. I think the toughest man at the pub is surrounded by a group of drinkers and says, ‘no, I’ll be right’,” Hughes said, at one point calling Hinch “a wanker” for saying he drank wine because he liked the taste.

‘You’re a wanker’... Derryn Hinch cops a barb from Hughes over his taste for wine.

“I drank because I loved the taste of wine,” Hinch told the panel.

“That’s because you’re a wanker,” Hughes fired back, prompting Hinch to reply: “It takes one to know one.”

Former Speaker of the House Anna Burke said Australians needed to confront the country’s hidden problem.

“It’s an epidemic and we don’t talk about it,” she said of Australia’s suicide rate as it was revealed 1,025 Australians take their lives each year, and around 65,000 attempt to kill themselves.

Ms Burke’s comments that Australians should stop obsessing about hospital beds and invest more in prevention strategies received a round of rapturous applause.

"It's an epidemic and we don't talk about it" Anna Burke on national suicide statistics #QandA http://t.co/xzczfHuXLs

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) April 20, 2015

“We used to put the heroin deaths on the front of the paper, used to put the road toll and the numbers are as bad and it’s frightening,” she said. “A million people each year worldwide. One person who succeeds, 20 have tried. The numbers are daunting.

“I was at the funeral of a dear friend whose brother had committed suicide and he gave a eulogy. And he said ‘my brother died from an illness. The illness killed him’. And we need to accept that but we don’t accept that.

“We need to get people going to the doctors early. We don’t need them to wait 43 years like Andrew did.

“We need the prevention there at the beginning. We are obsessed with hospital beds in this country. Why are we waiting for everybody to end up at the bottom of a cliff in the ambulance going to the hospital?”

.@janeburns discusses the failings of the mental health care system & key recommendations in the report #QandA http://t.co/JYq4HCmfs9

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) April 20, 2015

The discussion on mental illness received positive responses in the Twittersphere with many applauding the panellists for their measured views.

More young people in Australia die by #suicide than car accidents. We must ensure there are support services in every local community #qanda

— Senator Penny Wright (@PennyWrites) April 20, 2015

Well done #qanda for dedicating significant air time to tackle the tough subject of #mentalhealth in Australia. Quash the stigma. #illness

— NATWICK (@n_chadwick) April 20, 2015

However some did not think the discussion went far enough, adding the Government needed to invest more.

@AndrewRobbMP I applauded your story on #qanda but I shake my head at your governments policy on #mentalhealth. How many more have to die?

— Tim Field (@kenget) April 20, 2015

Earlier Andrew Robb, Minister for Trade and Investment, spoke about his 43-year battle with depression.

The Federal member for Goldstein said he denied his illness all that time until he finally came to terms with it a few years ago.

The panel discussed Australia’s suicide ‘epidemic’.

He also revealed some of the coping mechanisms he used, including deliberate sneezing and driving to work with a pen in his mouth.

“Someone told me that if you smile or laugh you release these endorphins… so for 10 years I drove to work with a pen in my mouth because someone told me that if your face is sort of configured as if you were smiling, your brain thinks you are and it releases endorphins.”

If you or someone you know needs help, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. There is also an anonymous online chat service available between 8pm and 4am AEST at Lifeline.org.au, or visit Beyond Blue’s website. For crisis assistance, call 000.