Hallucination can lead to weird parties that never happened?
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Ann Poh suffered depression. The self-confessed vainpot talks about her dark days
CHUBBIER but CHIRPY again
By Wendy TeoThe New Paper, November 03, 2005
FOR those who have fond memories of Ann Poh, here’s some good news.
After nearly a year’s absence, the former MediaWorks actress will be making a couple of cameo appearances on television.
Ann, who was retrenched during the media merger exercise last year, will be seen in the upcoming drama, Love Concierge, as well as variety show Get It Right.
‘The aunties at supermarket ask me when I will return to TV. They like seeing me play san ba (Mandarin for bitchy) characters,’ Ann told The New Paper when we caught up with her over coffee recently.
The buxomy one, who was discovered on the Channel U variety show, Snap, and had appeared in shows like Ready Steady Go, Ok No Problem and Happy Rules, misses being on TV.
Picture: Kua Chee SiongShe said: ‘Acting is addictive. The job satisfaction is like no other, and the result is tangible because it’s recorded on tape. My friends and I still gather to watch our old tapes and laugh at ourselves.’
Ann helps out at her husband’s kite shop, Goflykite, at Riverside Point, and has plans to start a small business that is ‘children-related’.
She has not received offers to return to TV full-time.
The 29-year-old was looking radiant and happy. She also greeted us like old friends, waving vigorously when she spotted us approaching.
We couldn’t help but notice that she looked heavier than before.
WEIGHT GAIN FROM MEDICINE
It’s the side-effect of anti-depressants from her battle with depression over the past year, she told us.
But her depression wasn’t because of the merger, nor was it because she wasn’t offered a contract by MediaCorp.
Ann said it was because of health problems that had been plaguing her since early last year. She suffered from missed periods and acne.
Laughing, the now-healthy Ann said: ‘My acne problem was a bigger blow to me than the merger! Do you know how vain I am? I was so upset over the breakouts that I didn’t want to show my face in public.’
She avoided all phone calls, and refused to leave her house, choosing to hole herself up in her room.
She even refused to speak to her husband.
Her troubles started in late 2003, when she stopped having her period.
A worried Ann went to see a doctor after three months, but was told to take a wait-and-see approach.
The fear of cancer was also planted in her head by a relative, and the anxiety added to her stress.
When the doctor put her on hormonal pills, things got worse.
She began hallucinating and sleepwalking.
WEIRD PARTIES
Joking about her condition then, Ann said: ‘I was having ‘parties’ every night! Probably because I love children so much, I saw myself hosting parties with lots of kids, and sometimes they were dressed in Qin dynasty clothes!’
During these ‘parties’, she would binge, eating for the whole party, without realising what she was doing.
She even went shopping at her neighbourhood convenience store once during a sleepwalking episode.
‘My husband caught me during one of my binges, but I had no idea what was going on. My doctor advised him to tie me up when I’m sleeping, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.’
Ann would coop herself up at home, and spoke only to her daughters (aged 13, 6 and 5).
A slimmer Ann in a picture taken two years ago while she was with MediaWorks.Her good friend, actress Eelyn Kok, said in a separate interview: ‘She would tell me how she dreaded having to go out and meet people.
‘She would turn up for appointments with friends, then hide in a corner, having a terrible urge to flee. And sometimes, she really would.’
Ann finally decided to see a psychiatrist when her co-star in Power Of Love, Hong Kong actress Hui Ying Hong, convinced her that her problems could be due to depression, not hormonal imbalance.
‘I don’t like to talk about my problems, I like to keep everything inside. Maybe that’s why I got depressed, it’s an accumulation of all my suppressed emotions,’ she said with a laugh.
She started piling on the kilos because of the anti-depressants. From 48kg, Ann became 60kg at her heaviest.
TRIP BACK TO PENANG SAVED HER
She also became very emotional.
‘I would run to the toilet because I suddenly felt like bawling, and I would sit there for a long time because I didn’t want people to see that my eyes were puffy after crying.
‘But actually, it felt good to let everything out.’
Her road to recovery started this February, when she went home to Penang to see her gravely-ill grandmother.
Her father and younger brother, who had no idea about Ann’s problems until they saw her, lavished her with concern and love.
And it was the last words of her grandmother, who died in April, that motivated Ann to end her dependence on anti-depressants.
Five months down the road, Ann has put her depression behind her.
She laughed easily and frequently during our interview, even joking about her illness.
She no longer hides from friends, and has regained her confidence.
She is so comfortable with her new self that when we asked if she wanted to put on makeup for the photo shoot, she waved it off, saying: ‘No need lah!’.
‘It’s really thanks to the support of my friends and family, that I made it through,’ she said.
‘My weight is also slowly going down, and I am not so uptight over it anymore. My youngest daughter just said to me the other day, ‘Mummy, you are so cute now that you are chubby!’ ‘
And we agree.
(abductboy: I wonder if me ‘seeing people everywhere’ whenever I get sleepy over the wheels is similar to her affliction?)
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Ann Poh suffered depression. The self-confessed vainpot talks about her dark days
CHUBBIER but CHIRPY again
By Wendy TeoThe New Paper, November 03, 2005
FOR those who have fond memories of Ann Poh, here’s some good news.
After nearly a year’s absence, the former MediaWorks actress will be making a couple of cameo appearances on television.
Ann, who was retrenched during the media merger exercise last year, will be seen in the upcoming drama, Love Concierge, as well as variety show Get It Right.
‘The aunties at supermarket ask me when I will return to TV. They like seeing me play san ba (Mandarin for bitchy) characters,’ Ann told The New Paper when we caught up with her over coffee recently.
The buxomy one, who was discovered on the Channel U variety show, Snap, and had appeared in shows like Ready Steady Go, Ok No Problem and Happy Rules, misses being on TV.
Picture: Kua Chee SiongShe said: ‘Acting is addictive. The job satisfaction is like no other, and the result is tangible because it’s recorded on tape. My friends and I still gather to watch our old tapes and laugh at ourselves.’
Ann helps out at her husband’s kite shop, Goflykite, at Riverside Point, and has plans to start a small business that is ‘children-related’.
She has not received offers to return to TV full-time.
The 29-year-old was looking radiant and happy. She also greeted us like old friends, waving vigorously when she spotted us approaching.
We couldn’t help but notice that she looked heavier than before.
WEIGHT GAIN FROM MEDICINE
It’s the side-effect of anti-depressants from her battle with depression over the past year, she told us.
But her depression wasn’t because of the merger, nor was it because she wasn’t offered a contract by MediaCorp.
Ann said it was because of health problems that had been plaguing her since early last year. She suffered from missed periods and acne.
Laughing, the now-healthy Ann said: ‘My acne problem was a bigger blow to me than the merger! Do you know how vain I am? I was so upset over the breakouts that I didn’t want to show my face in public.’
She avoided all phone calls, and refused to leave her house, choosing to hole herself up in her room.
She even refused to speak to her husband.
Her troubles started in late 2003, when she stopped having her period.
A worried Ann went to see a doctor after three months, but was told to take a wait-and-see approach.
The fear of cancer was also planted in her head by a relative, and the anxiety added to her stress.
When the doctor put her on hormonal pills, things got worse.
She began hallucinating and sleepwalking.
WEIRD PARTIES
Joking about her condition then, Ann said: ‘I was having ‘parties’ every night! Probably because I love children so much, I saw myself hosting parties with lots of kids, and sometimes they were dressed in Qin dynasty clothes!’
During these ‘parties’, she would binge, eating for the whole party, without realising what she was doing.
She even went shopping at her neighbourhood convenience store once during a sleepwalking episode.
‘My husband caught me during one of my binges, but I had no idea what was going on. My doctor advised him to tie me up when I’m sleeping, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.’
Ann would coop herself up at home, and spoke only to her daughters (aged 13, 6 and 5).
A slimmer Ann in a picture taken two years ago while she was with MediaWorks.Her good friend, actress Eelyn Kok, said in a separate interview: ‘She would tell me how she dreaded having to go out and meet people.
‘She would turn up for appointments with friends, then hide in a corner, having a terrible urge to flee. And sometimes, she really would.’
Ann finally decided to see a psychiatrist when her co-star in Power Of Love, Hong Kong actress Hui Ying Hong, convinced her that her problems could be due to depression, not hormonal imbalance.
‘I don’t like to talk about my problems, I like to keep everything inside. Maybe that’s why I got depressed, it’s an accumulation of all my suppressed emotions,’ she said with a laugh.
She started piling on the kilos because of the anti-depressants. From 48kg, Ann became 60kg at her heaviest.
TRIP BACK TO PENANG SAVED HER
She also became very emotional.
‘I would run to the toilet because I suddenly felt like bawling, and I would sit there for a long time because I didn’t want people to see that my eyes were puffy after crying.
‘But actually, it felt good to let everything out.’
Her road to recovery started this February, when she went home to Penang to see her gravely-ill grandmother.
Her father and younger brother, who had no idea about Ann’s problems until they saw her, lavished her with concern and love.
And it was the last words of her grandmother, who died in April, that motivated Ann to end her dependence on anti-depressants.
Five months down the road, Ann has put her depression behind her.
She laughed easily and frequently during our interview, even joking about her illness.
She no longer hides from friends, and has regained her confidence.
She is so comfortable with her new self that when we asked if she wanted to put on makeup for the photo shoot, she waved it off, saying: ‘No need lah!’.
‘It’s really thanks to the support of my friends and family, that I made it through,’ she said.
‘My weight is also slowly going down, and I am not so uptight over it anymore. My youngest daughter just said to me the other day, ‘Mummy, you are so cute now that you are chubby!’ ‘
And we agree.
(abductboy: I wonder if me ‘seeing people everywhere’ whenever I get sleepy over the wheels is similar to her affliction?)
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