Coronation Street star Simon Gregson has opened up on his 20-year anxiety battle that saw him suffer up to 12 panic attacks per day.
The 48 year old actor, who has played Weatherfield icon Steve McDonald since 1989, revealed how producers on the ITV soap called in a doctor to come to the set to help him as his condition came to a head. He also spoke about how he had to visit a psychiatrist because his mental health was causing him to believe he was suffering from mystery illnesses.
Speaking about his character Steve’s issues with depression, Simon said he struggled to act out panic attacks – despite having '10, 11, 12 a day' himself. But he told how he had overcome his own anxiety issues after he took six months off from the show and retrained his brain not to worry about trivial things.
Speaking on ITV's Lorraine about his mental health problems, he said: “In 2015 it came to its head and I didn't know what it was. I had heart scans and brain scans, they thought I had vertigo then we went back to the beginning and my GP figured out that I had an anxiety disorder.
“I'd get numb fingers, tunnel vision, feel sick, dizzy. Completely deliberating.”
Simon went on to say the condition ‘came to a head’ when he had to ring his boss to say, ‘I’m in my car but I can't get off the drive’. That’s when Corrie producers called in a doctor who had helped members of the Royal Family and navy officers.
Simon added: “I had six months off, I went to the gym. I did a lot of research and I learnt how your brain is connected to the stomach. I retrained my brain not to worry.”
He continued: “All the people who come into Corrie now are taken off into a room and they're told about what will happen, press intrusion, how being famous – for want of a better word – will change your life. But when we started, there was none of that so we just had to deal with it.
“And we kind of became massive overnight. It was the late 80s, early 90s and now I think being on TV or in the public eye is a lot easier.”
Simon said that having to act out scenes showing his character Steve’s mental health issues ‘couldn't have come at a worse time’ as he himself was not feeling well.
He added: “When it came to it and my character had to have a panic attack, I couldn't do it, after having 10 a day. I realised it was all psychosomatic.”
Simon, speaking to Cheshire Life magazine in June this year, told how he had a ‘eureka moment’ with his mental health when he thought: "Do I want to be surrounded by my family on my deathbed wishing I had worried more?"
He realised he didn’t, so he learned to let things go more and stop worrying about ‘stuff that doesn’t matter’.
The actor, married to Emma and dad to Alfie, 15, Harry, 13 and Henry, six, added: “I was always really anxious growing up, worrying about what people thought of me. There were also times of depression.
“You can’t keep brushing stuff under the carpet when your kids start to notice things. I saw a psychiatrist and he said I’d had anxiety for more than 20 years.”
Source: Read Full Article
