Orlando Bloom
Near-death experience plunged him into “dark times”.
© ZUMA Wire / imago images
Orlando Bloom speaks openly about a horrific accident in his youth that not only caused physical pain but also took a toll on the actor’s mental health.
To mark World Mental Health Day on October 10, 2022, Orlando Bloom, 45, shares a personal and formative experience that had a lasting impact on his life.
Orlando Bloom had a near-death experience at a young age
As UNICEF’s International Ambassador, Orlando Bloom posted a touching video on his Instagram account of a serious accident he once suffered. “When I was 19, I fell three stories out of a window and broke my back,” he begins, adding, “I was very lucky to survive the fall because my spinal cord was just intact. In But for the first four days I was told that I might never be able to walk again.”
The horrific incident has caused Katy Perry’s now-fiancé, 37, to reconsider his lifestyle. Because at that time he often went too far: “It was really the beginning of a long and painful journey for me, on which I recognized some of the patterns in my life that had led to my numerous accidents.” After the fall, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star underwent spinal surgery. After twelve days he was able to leave the hospital with crutches, which was “remarkable and unusual”. But what followed was a complicated road to recovery that included physical therapy, among other things. He also had to wear a back splint for a long time.
“The months after the fall were a pretty dark time”
However, the near-death experience had hit him mentally in particular. “The months after the fall were a pretty dark time,” he says. “As someone who has always been very active in his life, I suddenly felt very constricted and in a lot of pain.” It took time for him to process the trauma. Ultimately, however, he would have viewed the injury as something that “created time and space” for him to take a good look at his lifestyle.
“Mental health is particularly challenging because it’s invisible,” he explains, adding: “There’s always a way to turn pain, be it physical or mental, into great happiness.” At the end he makes an urgent appeal to the viewers: “It’s so important to approach people, to talk to them, […] to create the possibility of communication that leads to transformation and change.”
Source used: instagram.com