Clint Howard & Maurice Benard Deep Dive Into Mental Health

Clint Howard sat down with Maurice Benard, (Sonny Corinthos), from General Hospital on Sunday, and the two actors went into a deep dive on mental health. Usually, the State of Mind podcast takes time to get around to talking about bipolar and anxiety, but Clint wasn’t shy about getting straight into it.

Who Is Clint?

Maurice Benard introduced his guest and listed some of his background. Clint Howard, who is 66 years old and married to a wife “as tough as nails,” is a former child star who was in TV and film since he was very young, following his dad into the industry. You might remember him from Star Trek and as a voice actor with Disney.

Unlike Maurice Benard, he didn’t spend many years on daytime soaps. However, he did appear on The Bold and the Beautiful as a guest star, playing the role of Tom Starr. He did so well that he ended up on the 2025 list of Daytime Emmy nominations.

Meeting On Common Ground

Most of the guests who appear on the podcast explore mental health, and in Clint’s case, he focused on understanding how debilitating anxiety can be. While he couldn’t recall anxiety as a little kid, he can recall acting back then, and nowadays, these memories sometimes cause him anxiety.

Clint said:

My memory, is chock full of vivid, interesting, unique snapshots that have burned a message either of warning or of “I told you so” in my head… I do have memories of being an actor, and it’s just they’ve over the years they’ve added up. They’ve added up to be where now once in a while my memory can give me anxiety. It’s that vivid.

That interested the real-life Sonny Corinthos because he too suffers from anxiety. Sometimes when he takes lithium for his bipolar, his anxiety makes him feel worse than the bipolar.

Ways To Cope With Anxiety 

Both men talked about using various forms of non-medical drugs. In his case, Maurice Benard told Clint Howard that alcohol seemed to help. But one day when he used it, he threatened “to kill my wife,” so it’s not a long-term solution. Meanwhile, Clint tried marijuana. However, he prefers to get physical.

“Boxing” helps, and he makes regular use of a sauna and massage. Another thing that helped with the pressure of acting as a young man was playing golf. In fact, Clint Howard claimed that a few rounds of golf actually “saved my life and saved my brain.” It also helps that he long ago learned not care “what other people think.”

Fans React In The Comments

Once again, the 150K subscribers loved the interview. One of them wrote, “When Clint said his memories have given him anxiety, I’ve had that problem too. God bless him. I love this interview. I’m so glad he is well.”

Here are a few more reactions:

• Great interview! Yes we need to stop caring what others think. Oh what a weight that’d lift! Too much stress.
• Great guest! I thought Clint was so cute as a child actor, and he is a great guy now too.
• I enjoyed listening to Clint talk about…his experiences working out, the Cold Plunge and the Jacuzzi.
• That was a great interview or conversation if you prefer. He was great on the Bold and Beautiful.

Do you watch State of Mind with Maurice? His interviews are always so interesting, and they seem to help others who struggle to cope with mental health issues. Shout out in the comments below, and come back here often for all your General Hospital cast news and updates.