Meet Joe Tracini: Ex-Hollyoaks actor with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in C4’s Me And The Voice In My Head doc
AFTER shooting to fame on Hollyoaks, Joe Tracini has had an impressive career in TV.
However, behind closed doors he battles a heartbreaking condition that can affect his everyday life.
Who is Joe Tracini?
Born Joe Pasquale on July 19, 1988, Joe Tracini is an actor and comedian.
After starting his career at CITV in 2004, he joined Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks in 2011 as Dennis Savage and appeared until November 2014.
The star has grown up in the limelight as he is the son of comedian and I’m A Celebrity winner Joe Pasquale.
Speaking about why he changed his surname from Pasquale to Tracini, he told the Eastern Daily Press: “As my name is literally Joe Pasquale and I didn’t want the expectation and if I’m on a list I’ve got something to live up to.
“My great-great grandad is from Sicily in Italy and was an idiot as when he moved to England he filled out his citizenship form wrong and put his last name as his first name, first name as last name and last name as middle name so was Joe Tracini Pasquale rather than Pasquale Giuseppe Tracini.
“So I asked my grandad what our original family name was when I was looking to change mine, which he said was Tracini and I thought great and changed it.”
What condition does stand-up comedian, Joe Tracini have?
Joe has been very honest about his ongoing battle with Borderline Personality Disorder.
Speaking to This Morning in 2022, he said: “Because it’s in my head people don’t really know how to cope with it.
“Essentially what BPD is is, I have a voice in my head that hates me and hates everything I do, everything I’ve been, and everything that I’m ever going to be.”
He added: “It’s living with a school bully in my head.”
In 2022, Joe released the book 10 Things I Hate About Me, where he addressed being diagnosed with BPD.
What is Borderline Personality Disorder?
BPD is a long-term pattern of “abnormal behaviour” characterised by unstable emotions, sense of self and relationships with others.
People with borderline personality disorder may experience intense episodes of anger, depression and anxiety which can last for days, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Sufferers may experience rapid mood swings and as a result, their interests and values can change quickly.
They also tend to view things in extremes – such as all good or completely bad.
How to watch Me And The Voice In My Head
Joe discusses his condition in his documentary Borderline Personality Disorder in Me and the Voice in My Head.
In the Channel 4 show he talks candidly to psychologists and his family about his mental health and past traumas as he also attempts to reignite his comedy career.
The doc is being shown as part of Mental Health Awareness Week and will air on May 13, 2024 at 10pm on Channel 4.
If you miss it you can watching it again on the C4 streaming site.
The symptons of Borderline Personality Disorder
You might be diagnosed with BPD if you have at least five of the following nine symptoms:
- You feel very worried about people abandoning you, and would do anything to stop that happening.
- You have very intense emotions that last from a few hours to a few days and can change quickly (for example, from feeling very happy and confident to suddenly feeling low and sad).
- You don’t have a strong sense of who you are, and it can change significantly depending on who you’re with.
- You find it very hard to make and keep stable relationships.
- You feel empty a lot of the time.
- You act impulsively and do things that could harm you (such as binge eating, using drugs or driving dangerously).
- You often self-harm or have suicidal feelings.
- You have very intense feelings of anger, which are really difficult to control.
- When very stressed, you may also experience paranoia or dissociation
The Information is supplied by the charity MIND.