Loose Women's Denise Welch has opened up about her recent mental health difficulties that caused to take the last few months off.
The presenter, advocate and actor — who has appeared in Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks, and Waterloo Road — has historically been open about her depression.
Returning to the ITV show today, she said that post-natal depression from 36 years ago led to episodes of clinical depression over the years. She hadn't had a breakdown since 2019, the longest she had gone without one, until November.
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"Chemically it just happens, you have no idea [why]," she explained of how it works for her. "I can be in a very happy situation when it happens, unstressed, so November comes along, I felt okay, I was doing well, I had a lot of jobs."
Denise recounted that she was driving along when she had a "complete feeling of unreality" that she hadn't felt for years, and couldn't remember how to get home.
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She said that, eventually, "I got back to my husband Lincoln and said 'it's here' and he knew what I meant, he knows all the signs. It was so black, so dark, so quickly,
"I haven't had anxiety for a long time. I've had depression, not anxiety, and the panic attacks started and Lincoln was trying to take stuff out of my diary and I wouldn't eat anything... When I have depression I can't eat a thing but I'll lie to people and say to people that I'm eating, but I wasn't eating, and my health was going down."
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Determined to not let people down with her pantomime and charity ball commitments, Denise "ploughed on", but "within three days I collapsed in the foyer of this hotel that I was staying in and I got back to my room and I said to my agent, 'you've got to pull me out'."
She said that she was afraid of a backlash in the newspapers, as 20 years before when a similar thing happened she was scrutinised, but was thankful that there is more understanding of depression and mental health issues nowadays.
She also explained that after she recovered, she took a Caribbean holiday and after returning, was rushed to hospital with a stomach infection and had to be on a drip for a week.
Denise explained: "They didn't have to do surgery, they got it with antibiotics thankfully. As my mother said, 'Take me to the knacker's yard!'"
Loose Women airs on weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
Read more Loose Women news on our dedicated homepage
If you've been affected by the issues raised in this story, organisations who can offer support include the NHS, Samaritans on 116 123 or Mind on 0300 123 3393. Readers in the US are encouraged to visit mentalhealth.gov.
Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
