Kevin Smith breaks his silence on struggling with mental health issue

Kevin Smith has recently opened up about receiving mental health treatment to deal with past sexual abuse.

In a new interview with PEOPLE, Smith revealed that he was admitted to the Sierra Tucson treatment Centre in Arizona in January last year where he stayed for a month.

Recalling the time Smith decided to check into the mental health facility, he woke up “one morning” and experienced the “scary feeling” that he’d lost control of his mind.

“At that moment, I wouldn’t have been averse to not being around any longer,” said the movie-maker.

The Red State director continued, “I called a friend and said, ‘I’m in a weird, dark place. I need to go somewhere and get help.’”

Smith told the outlet that he had been suppressing a “traumatic memory” of child sexual abuse for years.

“I felt disgusting, like I didn't matter,” stated the 52-year-old.

The Jersey Girl creator added, “That's when ‘the other guy’ started to appear. I decided to be entertaining and make people love me before they noticed I was fat.”

While discussing about his time at the treatment facility, Smith disclosed, “In the beginning, it was tough to share when somebody’s talking about watching their friend get killed and I'm like, ‘Well, my fourth-grade teacher told me I was fat’.”

However, Smith added, “I learned that there's no differentiation [between levels of trauma] to the human nervous system. Internally, trauma is trauma.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Smith mentioned that his goal is to help other people struggling with mental health issues.

“I’m terrified to see everyone’s reaction to all of this. But I know there’s somebody out there who doesn’t know this stuff — like I didn’t — who could get something out of this,” concluded the director.