Muireann O’Connell has candidly discussed how trolling both online and in person affected her mental health.
The proud Limerick woman has appeared on TV for years now, including The Six O’Clock Show and Ireland AM.
She explained that she has dealt with plenty of abuse online. However, it has now seeped into her real life as well.
Speaking on Irish chef Mark Moriarty‘s Rosted podcast, she said: “People shout at me on the street saying, ‘I pay your wages’, and I’m like? I don’t work for the national broadcaster, like you don’t say that to guards online.
“I think people have become less about the collective and more about the individual.”
She even shared that she feels like people she has never met “hate” her.
“I went into a shop one day and the way this woman looked at me I was like, ‘Oh, she hates me with the fire of a thousand suns’, I could just tell she wanted to punch my face in,” she explained.
“But, as long as you know there is someone out there that hates you, I’m good with that, they hate me and I’m never going to meet them and that is totally and utterly cool.”
She explained that she started sharing “smutty” DMs she would get on social media to stop people sending them to her. However, she has confirmed that things have gotten better for her.
“It’s not bad anymore, but I would say that my mental health was in the toilet a few years ago,” she admitted.
“I used to use social media as a tool to give my opinion on things I cared about, but I cannot do that anymore.”
She added: “I don’t want anything else from social media because it’s just not real. Nobody knows what’s going on there.
“People that had no friends in school have created a media platform that tears us all apart. I just want to chat about my favourite books and shows.
“The rest is not real life.”
