The actor has claimed that MDMA saved him

'Reacher' star Alan Ritchson confesses he tried to commit suicide: I hung myself

Alan Ritchson has become one of the hottest actors in the business thanks to his starring role in ‘Reacher’.

The series continues to be a huge hit on Amazon Prime Video, and he has achieved a level of fame he probably didn’t expect a few years ago.

Although life is smiling on him now, the American has gone through some very difficult times, even going so far as to attempt suicide.

This is what he confessed to The Hollywood Reporter, where he has spoken about his personal life and told of his toughest experience.

Ritchson says he was sexually assaulted by a photographer when he was pursuing a career in modelling.

“Let’s be honest, it’s like legalized sex trafficking. The industry is not regulated, and it’s a widely known secret that if you’re hired on a job, you’re basically being passed off to a photographer to be trafficked,” he said.

“The number of times and situations where I was put in horrific environments where sexual abuse was the goal and the paycheck that you were desperate for in order to survive was the carrot, I can’t count on two hands. It was quite often,” he added.

Alan Ritchson: I hung myself

The mental torment led Ritchson to try and take his own life.

“I was reeling from the fallout and the fatigue, and it got to the point where I was stuck in bed for weeks. My wife and kids were concerned, and I could see confusion in their eyes. Nobody knew what was wrong,” he explained.

The event occurred in 2019. Alan was in his attic when he grabbed a cable, wrapped it around his neck and jumped: “I hung myself. It all happened so fast, and I was dangling there.”

But then he experienced what he likened to divine intervention: he experienced a vision of his then-young sons in their mid-30s.

“They calmly asked me not to do it, and told me that they wanted me to be here, alive and part of their lives,” he recalled.

This event caused him to see a specialist, who diagnosed him as having bipolar and ADHD. After a few months when he was unsure of his path, a friend recommended that he take MDMA, something that changed his life.

“I had never done drugs but I was truly, like, ‘Well, I might kill myself tomorrow, what do I have to lose?’ So, I did it. I swear to God, the biggest light bulb went off, and it rewired my brain in the best way,” he said.