I thought my agoraphobia was a virus

AS a presenter for Channel 4’s A Place In The Sun, Danni Menzies has a jetsetting lifestyle that many would dream of.

But little do viewers know that 10 years ago she was agoraphobic and couldn’t leave the house without taking Valium, let alone get on a plane. “It was awful,” said Danni, 31, who lives in London.

Her symptoms started when she was at university in Loughborough studying art. She added: “At first, I thought I had a virus. Every time I wanted to go outside I started sweating, my heart would start racing, I’d feel sick and need to go to the toilet quickly.”

As the weeks wore on, Danni expected the problem to clear up but it didn’t. She went from being an outgoing student with lots of friends to a recluse who was unable to leave home. “I wasn’t managing to attend any classes and my social life was non-existent,” she said.

Then one day, after weeks of suffering, she had the urge to drive to her parents’ house in Perthshire, 350 miles away. “I woke up and thought, ‘I need to go home’. I didn’t tell anyone I was going or say goodbye to the friends I lived with. I just went into autopilot and got in the car and went back.”

Midway through the journey, she began to feel unwell. She said: “I hit some traffic and I could feel my heart racing. I felt hot and was convinced I was going to be sick. I managed to get off at a service station and woke up in a toilet a few hours later covered in sweat. Even now, I can’t remember getting in there. Looking back, I realise I must have had a really bad panic attack.”

Danni managed to drive the rest of the way home and, with time, slowly began to feel better.

“Being in the house where I grew up, in a tiny village on the lochside, it was almost like I was OK again,” she said. “It wasn’t until I’d try to go to the shops that I would start to have bad panic attacks.”

After six months, Danni went to her GP. She was diagnosed with agoraphobia – a panic disorder which makes people fear being in situations where there is no escape, or help might not be available. At first, she was prescribed anti-anxiety medication, then antidepressants.

Finally she was referred for talking therapy but nothing helped. As the months wore on, she began to feel hopeless.

“It was such a big change, going from being a student with lots of friends to living with my parents and not leaving the house,” she said. “I started to get really depressed and felt like I wasn’t ever going to have a life again.”

When Danni confided in her parents about how severe her depression was, they checked her into the Priory, where she underwent cognitive behavioural therapy.

But it wasn’t until she tried Timeline Therapy – a form of neurolinguistic programming, which helps people let go of negative beliefs about the past – that she finally found relief from her attacks.

Among the traumatic memories was the sudden death of a childhood friend.

Around the same time, Danni had an accident on a night out at university. She said: “I fell off a bucking bronco and was propelled face first into a metal pole.

“I couldn’t see for a week and I had to get stitches in my nose.” But after just one session of Timeline Therapy, Danni felt a lot better.

She said: “It was like something had just been lifted off my shoulders and I felt really different. I wanted to try having a life again.”

Now, although Danni still struggles with anxiety, she works hard to keep it in check.

“Often if I feel panic rising in my chest, I get outside and go for a walk, or I meditate,” she said.

Looking back, Danni can’t believe how far she’s come since her mental health was at its worst.

She added: “I went from having to take a lot of Valium just to get on a bus, to flying around the world for my job.”

A Place in the Sun is on C4 each weekday at 3pm.

I felt really depressed, like I wasn’t going to have a life again