BILLY Connolly has admitted he has had suicidal thoughts since being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
The actor and comedian told how he was prone to black moods when he thinks about how bad the symptoms of his condition could get.
The stand-up was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2013 just weeks before he had successful surgery for prostate cancer.
Connolly, 73, said he now struggles to get out of bed some days because he is in so much pain and is now unable to play his beloved banjo.
He has taken to meditating to relieve bouts of depression and said he is still hopeful a cure can be found for the illness.
Asked in a US radio interview whether he had considered "checking out" on his own terms, he said: "Yeah sometimes I give it a bit of thought when I'm in bed.
"I think 'Well this is forever, this isn't going to get better, it's going to get worse'.
"But then I try and change my mind and I try and meditate and move away from it sideways.
"The guy who told me I had it said to me 'You realise it's incurable?' I thought he could have said 'We have yet to find a cure' or something like that to put a bit of light at the end of the tunnel."
He added: "I'm okay at the moment but it comes and goes. Sometimes I have trouble getting out of bed and I walk sort of strangely.
"Turning over (in bed) is difficult. Turning from one side to the other can be quite a complicated manoeuvre.
"The body isn't responding sometimes but it is quite interesting as the body changes.
"I have started to drool as well, that's a nice thing. That's going to make me really attractive."
Connolly's friend, the actor Robin Williams committed suicide in August, 2014, after being diagnosed with Parkinson's.
The Glaswegian said he would not have talked Williams out of taking his own life if he had known he was contemplating it.
He said: "I wouldn't have done anything.
"You have to give a guy the position that he is wise enough to make up his own mind.
"He started to phone me to tell me that he loved me and he did it for a while and then he was gone.
"My wife, who is a psychologist, said that was him saying goodbye. It was very weird."
Despite his health troubles, Connolly is set to embark on a three live stand-up shows in America.
He plays the Beacon Theatre in New York next Wednesday followed by dates in Washington DC and Boston.
The Big Yin also said is now learning to play the harmonica to replace the banjo.
He said: "My breathing is okay. I'm learning to play the harmonica, I'm pretty c*** but I'm getting there.
"I was a banjo player but the Parkinson's has f***** it. My left hand doesn't work properly.
"I also don't move as much on stage as I did. I stand kind of still."
Last week, Connolly's wife Pamela Stephenson said his diagnosis had come as a great shock and told how movie star Michael J Fox had become a role model for him.
Fox, 54, who starred as Marty McFly in Back to the Future, was diagnosed with the degenerative disease in 1991 and went public in 1998.
He set up the Michael J Fox Foundation to speak up for sufferers and fund research into the incurable illness.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article