‘One Tree Hill’s Paul Johansson Reveals He Struggled With Depression & Alcoholism While Filming the Show

Paul Johansson is opening up about struggling with his mental health while filming One Tree Hill.

The 59-year-old actor starred as Dan Scott in the WB show, which aired from 2003 to 2012. Despite the success of the show, those years were an extremely difficult time for Paul.

During an appearance on the Trying to Figure It Out podcast, he spoke candidly about dealing with depression and alcoholism at the time.

“It was awful,” Paul remembered. “I was, I’ve never spoken about this before, I was deeply depressed and I was drinking. I was drinking a couple bottles of wine a night by myself. For about six or seven years, it was really tough.”

He explained that the series was holding him back from getting better.

“It was just a time when I think I was absorbing the energy of the people that were looking at me, and seeing me as something that’s bad,” Paul continued. “To get out of it, the way to do it was the show had to end for me. I needed to get out and to get other characters and feel other things, but then I was getting bad guy roles again because of that show. It put me in a box.”

Several One Tree Hill stars recently reunited to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show’s premiere.