Radio host Sam Frost has addressed a tweet she released last week that sparked concerns about her mental state.
The tweet said: “To the fake accounts heavily trolling me online & into my personal life. If you wanted to break me.. Congratulations you have won. #broken”.
To the fake accounts heavily trolling me online & into my personal life. If you wanted to break me.. Congratulations you have won. #broken ?
— Sam Frost (@Sam_Frost) July 4, 2016
It prompted a flood of supportive messages from fans, querying if she was okay and wishing her the best.
On this morning’s Rove & Sam brekkie show on HitFM, co-host Rove McManus also admitted he was concerned for her, likening her tweet to that of Charlotte Dawson’s, a TV presenter who tragically committed suicide after the online trolling became too much.
“It got to a point for me, for about three or four months, where I would go to work and go home and I wouldn’t leave,” said Frost on this morning’s show.
“I shut my friends out, I shut my family out… I even shut Sash [boyfriend Sasha Mielczarek] out and when he asked what was wrong, I said I don’t want to be here anymore. And it wasn’t until I said that out loud that I realised what I was thinking.”
Frost said the relentless bashing on social media and the scrutiny from the media wore her down to the point where she didn’t want to wake up anymore.
When she’d first started the radio gig in November last year, she said she’d “copped a really hard time” and trolls were “horrendous”. She’d already been in the media spotlight for two years before that after winning The Bachelor – and then being publicly dumped – before becoming The Bachelorette.
It’s important to talk about issues, added Frost, noting she had been speaking to a professional. And then she went to Bali during the past two week break and came back refreshed, but the trolling started again with fake accounts and many people making up lies about her.
“It just all fell heavily on me again,” she said. “I’ve worked so hard to get away from that dark place. These trolls are relentless, they won’t stop, they’re pushing even harder and I don’t know why people think they can do that to someone.
“I just want to be the best version of me that I possibly can, for me and for my friends.”
If you are concerned about yourself or a loved one, BeyondBlue is an organisation that helps those suffering depression and mental health issues.
