JOE'S CLIMB OUT OF PIT OF DESPAIR

VETERAN actor Joe Pantoliano says depression almost destroyed his life! “I was a mess for a long time, and it was because of adolescent childhood trauma,” the Sopranos alum, 73, told Page Six.

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But it didn’t cause him to lose his sense of humor — he quips that depression is “really a bummer,” and that “at least with bipolar, you’ve got the highs.”

Until he sought professional treatment, he “self-medicated, and nearly destroyed” himself, Pantoliano says.