Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Corrie Samia’s panic attacks agony
STREET STAR SAMIA ON ANXIETY HELL
Sitting at home, heart racing and desperately trying to drag in some air, Samia Longchambon could feel the overwhelming panic rising as she struggled to breathe.
Convinced she was dying, the Coronation Street star begged husband Sylvain to call an ambulance. But he didn’t, because he knew exactly what to do.
Samia was not choking or suddenly unable to breathe because of an accident. Instead she was in the grip of an anxiety attack, a condition she now confesses has plagued her for almost 25 years.
“You feel like you are going to die, you can’t breathe,” she says. “You feel like you are going to faint or die.”
It’s a terrifying experience 35-year-old Samia has lived through numerous times. “You are absolutely shattered afterwards,” the mum-of-two adds. “I wouldn’t wish them on anyone, they are horrible.”
Thankfully, Sylvain is always by her side to help. “He tries to understand and he is so patient,” Samia says. “When I have had panic attacks, he knows how to calm me down.”
Samia, who plays the Street’s Maria Connor, last week revealed her struggles with anxiety on social media during Mental Health Awareness Week in the hope that it might encourage other sufferers to reach out and get help.
Now, opening up for the first time, Samia reveals she only started to get professional support six months ago and believes her parents’ divorce when she was young could have sparked it.
“I remember, when I was 11, I had been saying to my mum for a while, ‘I feel like I can’t get a deep breath, it is like I have to yawn to get a deep breath’,” she explains. “That has always been my thing when I am feeling anxious, it is one of my symptoms.
“I went to the doctor and they thought it might be asthma so they gave me an inhaler and a brown paper bag to breathe into, but nothing made any difference. My mum and dad got divorced when I was young and everyone has stuff that goes on in childhood, but that might have played a part in triggering it.”
The inhalers didn’t work and the doctors soon realised that Samia’s symptoms were anxiety-related.
But there wasn’t the same support available as there is today, so for 25 years she has had to learn to live with her anxiety and manage it alone.
“I didn’t have any therapy or counselling, but now I have found ways of dealing with it.
“Sometimes I wake up and my heart will be racing for some reason. I won’t know why, but I won’t be able to get my breath.
“Anxiety is like a fear. I read somewhere that depression means you are looking at the past too much, whereas anxiety is worrying about the future too much. That makes sense to me because I do worry about everything.
“It is like I get a sense of doom and go
Doctor thought it might be asthma. I got a paper bag to breathe into... it didn’t make any difference
through so many different scenarios in my head.” The condition has manifested in many different ways. “There are a million reasons for my anxiety,” she says. “It can be anything from a health anxiety obsession, to my selfconfidence, my confidence in my work, how I am with my friends. I care a lot what people think and sometimes if I have a conversation with someone it will stay with me for weeks that I might have offended them or I might not have said hello in the right way. “I overthink everything. You need constant reassurance.”
That reassurance comes in the form of Dancing on Ice star
Sylvain, whom she met in 2013 when they were partners on the show and married three years later.
They live in Cheshire with
Samia’s eight-year-old daughter Freya from her first marriage, and the couple’s son Yves, two.
“Sylvain is not anxious at all, he is so chilled and so calm,” Samia says. “He bought me a book recently called How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, which has been good.
“He is also brilliant at knowing what to do to help. If I am having a panic attack he will hold me really tight and reassure me in a calm voice that everything is going to be OK.”
For years Samia had avoided confiding in her doctor, feeling there was a huge taboo around mental health issues. “I had gone to the doctor’s with something else and while I was there I felt myself having a panic attack,” she says. “She checked my heart rate and it was over 100, so she did an ECG and my heart was fine, so then she said, ‘We need to sort out your anxiety.’”
The doctor gave Samia coping strategies such as meditation and breathing exercises and she has found yoga and exercise help too. Perhaps most importantly, it made her realise how common anxiety is. “The reason I am dealing better with it now is because I spoke to my doctor about it before Christmas,” she says. “Before that I had not been to the doctor with it for years, which is crazy.
“But I didn’t want the doctor to think I was mad or wasting their time. But there are things the doctors can do to help you help yourself.”
As a mum Samia is determined her own children won’t suffer from the same anxiety.
And she hopes by talking openly it will help others to realise it is OK to talk and find the support they need.
“Already my daughter jokes about how much of a worrier I am and I don’t want to put it on her,” she says. “I don’t want her to be like I was when I was a kid. Luckily, touch wood, she is not. She’s quite chilled.”
The star wants to show that nobody’s life is the image of perfection it may seem on the outside, especially on social media.
She says: “Everyone is in the same boat. I had seen an interview by Ryan Reynolds and I thought if anxiety can affect somebody like him… on the surface his life looks like everything is perfect.”
It was the inspiration Samia needed to talk about it. “I didn’t make a conscious decision to go public. I just started writing and thought it might just help a couple of people.
“It has surprised me the number of people who said thank you, or said I was brave. I don’t think I am brave at all.
“I just wanted other people who might be going through it too to know that I have anxious thoughts and it’s OK.”
The Mirror is making a donation to Anxiety UK in return for this interview. For more information or advice visit https://www.anxietyuk.org.uk/
Sylvain is brilliant. He holds me very tight and tells me in a calm voice it’s OK