Joe Pantoliano: 'Masturbation, medication and meditation' for mental health

At the Tribeca Festival 30th anniversary screening of Bound, Joe Pantoliano said he leans on a simple mnemonic for mental health: "You need three things — masturbation, medication and meditation." He added that he takes a "wonderful supplement," does not do meditation and quipped that "my wife [Nancy Sheppard] takes care of [the masturbation]." Pantoliano also said he walks every day, noting that when he went to McLean Hospital he was told a brisk 15-minute walk is equivalent to about 90 milligrams of Prozac.

For years he struggled with addictions — "Success," he said, "and then sex and then alcohol" — and described a period when he "crashed and burned, didn't die, and I guess discovered my shortcomings; they weren't terrible defects, they were, you know, just mental illness." He was diagnosed with clinical depression in 2007, has written two books about his experience, and founded No Kidding, Me Too!

in 2009 to help remove stigma around mental health.

joe pantoliano, mental health, masturbation, medication, meditation, clinical depression, no kidding, tribeca festival, mclean hospital, prozac