Harry Potter author JK Rowling has admitted she had "suicidal thoughts" while suffering from depression after her first marriage broke down.
Rowling said she would recommend counselling to others
She said her love for her daughter had made her seek help for the depression she suffered in her mid-20s.
"We're talking suicidal thoughts here, we're not talking 'I'm a little bit miserable'," she told an Edinburgh University student magazine.
Rowling, 42, said she had found counselling "absolutely invaluable".
"I definitely had leanings towards depression from quite an early age," she said in an interview with Adeel Amini for the magazine.
She added: "Then, mid-20s, life circumstances were poor and I really plummeted.
"The thing that made me face the fact that this was not a normal state that I was in was probably my daughter."
She said she had been to see a replacement doctor because her usual GP was on holiday.
The funny thing is, I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed
The doctor had said "if you ever feel a bit low, come and speak to the practice nurse", Rowling added.
"But two weeks later, I had a phone call in my flat from my regular GP who had looked back over the notes of what had happened while she'd been away and had been alarmed to see that I'd been sent away.
"She called me back in and I got counselling through her."
She added: "She absolutely saved me because I don't think I would have had the guts to go and do it twice."
The counselling she then received helped her to "get out" of her depression, she added.
I went through a really rough time and I'm quite proud of the fact that I got out of that
"The funny thing is, I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never.
"I think I'm abnormally shameless on that account because what's to be ashamed of?"
She urged anybody suffering from depression to "go and get help".
"I went through a really rough time and I'm quite proud of the fact that I got out of that," she added.