Howie Mandel opens up about mental health struggles that almost killed him

Howie Mandel got candid about overcoming his mental health struggles, and revealed that he "almost died" during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the bevy of substances he was taking to self-medicate.

The 70-year-old shared on Hoda Kotb's Joy 101 podcast that the pandemic made his severe anxiety and OCD entirely unmanageable, and he turned to taking THC gummies, smoking and drinking alcohol to cope.

"I'm sober right now, but during the pandemic I couldn't sleep because part of my [OCD] rumination is – I make fun of it – but I'm a germaphobe, and a pandemic? I live like I'm in a pandemic anyhow," he explained on the podcast.

"And when there's a real one, it was hard for me to handle. It was hard for a lot of people, but I wasn't strong enough to handle it. I couldn't sleep, so I started taking gummies to go to sleep." Howie said that he was "just trying to escape and make myself unconscious" with the gummies, but realized that it had taken a dark turn after his wife, Terry Mandel, had to intervene.

"There were times when my wife, she couldn't wake me up, or she thought she was going to take me to the hospital," he admitted.

The veteran America’s Got Talent judge further mentioned, "There's no middle ground with me. I don't smoke, or I haven't had a beer, or anything. I can't do anything in moderation. It wasn't healthy, and it wasn't good. It's not an excuse, but it was really bad."

Finally, Terry gave her husband an ultimatum, which led him to seek treatment. "She's a hero because she put up with it and sent me to therapy," Howie Mandel declared of his wife.