Anna Williamson revealed she suffered an emotional breakdown after a difficult patch in a relationship and a heavy workload began to impact her mental health.
The 38-year-old, who nurtures romance on E4’s Celebs Go Dating, is known for helping others throughout turbulent periods in their lives.
But in 2006, Anna herself faced an emotional hurdle of her own, after a mental health breakdown spurred her to seek professional help.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Star Online, Anna said: “I was going through a tough time in a relationship at the time.
“I was guilty of overdoing it with work and people-pleasing, burning the candle at both ends.”
“Essentially, I suffered an emotional breakdown and was subsequently diagnosed with GAD, Generalised Anxiety Disorder, and Panic Disorder.”
Anna Williamson opened up about experiencing an emotional breakdown in her twenties (Image: Ruth Rose)
Anna added: “Panic attacks were kind of my ‘thing du jour’.”
Friends and family started noticing something was wrong when Anna began losing weight, as her anxiety started to affect her diet and sleep pattern.
She said: “I think mental health has a very physical outcome to lots of people. I was losing weight, I wasn’t sleeping, I wasn’t eating. I was highly anxious and had very strange obsessive-compulsive rituals that were starting to creep in.
“Friends and family could obviously see that all wasn’t well with me, but people aren’t equipped to know what to say.
Anna Williamson is one of the beloved relationship coaches on E4’s Celebs Go Dating (Image: E4)
“My family and friends were all there for me but nobody knew what to say to me.”
The relationship coach explained that 14 years ago, the conversation surrounding mental health wasn’t as open and accepting as it can be today.
She continued: “It felt so so heavily steeped in stigma.
“Mental health has always had such an unfair stigma attached to it.”
Anna recommends regular exercise as a way of incorporating mindfulness into the everyday (Image: Instagram)
Anna went on: “At the time, I didn’t even know what was wrong. I think that’s the key thing with mental health. You can’t see what’s wrong so you’re just left with ruminating, manifesting thoughts and feelings.
“I didn’t tell anyone what was wrong with me because I didn’t know myself. So I shut up, I battled through until I couldn’t really cope anymore.”
Over the years, Anna has found that practising mindfulness and self-care is key to maintaining positive mental health throughout the highs and lows.
She explained: “For me, it’s about good diet, good health practices such as exercise, time out, digital detoxing, and making sure that I make time for myself.
“It sounds really simple and really cliche but it really does actually work.”
Urging others to care for their own mental health, the mum-of-two recommended taking time off, at least once a week, to give your mind a rest.
She said: “I think we’re all guilty of having too many thoughts going on at the same time.”
Before adding: “I think we need to just turn off in all ways – when we pause, we give our mental health a chance to rest and catch up.”
Anna Williamson’s The Brain Forum’s “Brain Debates” is available to watch at www.thebrainforum.org
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
