Stacey Solomon has spoken candidly about her experience with anxiety, revealing she has learned to "embrace" the condition as a part of her. The Loose Women star also revealed she battled postnatal depression following the birth of her eldest son Zachary in 2008, in an interview with Happiful magazine to support mental health charity Mind.
Now a mum to two boys – Zachary, now ten, and Leighton, six - Stacey said she has learned to manage her anxiety rather than try to fight it. "The best way for me to cope with it (anxiety), is to just accept that it is a part of me," Stacey said. "There are good sides to it, and bad sides to it. The good side is that it makes me vigilant about my health, albeit too vigilant. The bad side is that it leaves me feeling very anxious sometimes, and unable to focus on anything else."
© Photo: RexStacey Solomon revealed she suffers from anxiety
The former X Factor star also knows how to deal with her condtion, telling the magazine: "Now, if I have an anxiety attack, I know that there is a middle, a beginning and an end. I spent so long trying to fight it, and eventually I’ve come to terms with the fact that it’s part of me and if I embrace it, rather than trying to push it away, it's actually a lot easier to manage."
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Stacey has previously described her anxiety as "debilitating" and said she used to spend up to six hours a day worrying about death. The 29-year-old said one of her biggest fears is that she won't be around for her two young sons as they grow up. Writing in her column for The Sun, Stacey explained: "I remember being scared of dying at a very young age, maybe even five or six. I had no traumatic childhood experiences. There's not a point in my childhood where my mortality was questioned, but the fear was always there."
© Photo: InstagramStacey had post-natal depression after the birth of her first son
She added: "Bedtime is when I get most anxious because I have time to contemplate. I’m also more likely to question my mortality and catastrophise if I’ve seen or heard something upsetting about somebody. And, let's be honest, fear is everywhere."
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