FIRST LADY: MY DEPRESSION

THE wife of Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell has broken her silence and spoken for the first time of her battle with depression.

Fiercely private Bridget McConnell says the illness dominated her life and took the "joy out of everything".

The 44-year-old said she became severely depressed towards the end of 2000 after the stress of her high-powered job took its toll. Her husband had also just lost out on the chance to become Scotland's First Minister following the death of Donald Dewar.

"The joy went out of my life," said Bridget, the head of culture and leisure at Glasgow City Council. She added: "I literally just burst into tears. I couldn't handle it any more.

"I had to go home, and it took me three-and-a-half months to get back to work. Just getting into a car was painful. Thinking about what I was going to wear became impossible.

"The point of everything and the joy of everything had gone. I was burnt out. It was terrifying because part of me thought I could never do anything again, but my GP was fantastic and I had an amazing counsellor."

The run-up to Bridget's illness had been a particularly stressful time for the mum-of-two. She'd faced a series of bitter strikes at work, the family uprooted to move to Jack's constituency in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, and he'd also been cleared of involvement in the "Lobbygate" scandal.

Bridget has famously shied away from the spotlight - with one exception. In 2001 after McConnell, 42, was finally promoted to First Minister, Bridget stood by her husband at a Press conference when he admitted having an affair seven years earlier.

"It was hard to do," she admitted. "But in one way it was easy because it was about saying 'This is not the person or the life I recognise'."

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