Delta Gets Psyched

Designing Women star says she's in psych ward dealing with depression, other issues

By Josh Grossberg Feb 06, 2008 8:56 PMTags

Britney Spears isn't the only Hollywood type getting her head checked: Delta Burke has announced she's logging some psychiatric time, too.

About the same time the Blackout artist was forcibly committed to UCLA Medical Center, the former Designing Women star also decided she could use professional help herself. She voluntarily checked herself into an undisclosed L.A.-area clinic last week to deal with some longstanding mental-health issues.

The 51-year-old Burke broke the news in a phone interview with TMZ, explaining that she needed help sorting out the anti-anxiety medications she'd been taking to keep her condition under control.

"I've been here a week. I came in because I was on so many medications and they just weren't working, and I knew I needed to get my meds worked out, and that's a very long, tedious procedure," she told the site in an interview posted Wednesday. "Even if you're just on one or two. I'm on five. We were thinking that maybe I hadn't been properly diagnosed. Because some of these meds, it didn’t seem like they were working."

The actress acknowledged being on antidepressants, because she suffers from "severe depression" and "generalized anxiety" brought about by an obsessive-compulsive disorder that has devastated her life.

"Have you seen those shows where they don't find the body for days and they go in to clean up and there are stacks of newspapers up to the ceiling? That's hoarding. And I hate it," she added.

Burke did not say how long she would remain in the clinic.

Burke's publicist told The Insider the actress "regularly checks into a health clinic to have her medication adjusted and to be tested for depressions, diabetes and many other health problems. She is in a mental-health clinic today and is still fighting depression."

Before coming clean about her OCD, Burke made headlines in the '90s for her fluctuating weight problems, which led her to develop type 2 diabetes. She has also battled chronic depression and eating disorders since her years as a beauty queen and the former Miss Florida 1974.

Married to Gerald McRaney (Major Dad, Jericho) since 1989, Burke shot to fame playing feisty Suzanne Sugarbaker for five seasons on Designing Women, a role which garnered her two Emmy nominations for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.

Next up, she stars as a romance novelist trying to help her editor (Rescue Me's Andrea Roth) find the man of her dreams in Bridal Fever, an original movie airing this Friday on the Hallmark Channel.