Menopause took me to a very dark place
TV host tells of anxiety and memory loss
ULRIKA Jonsson has spoken about how her struggle with the menopause left her feeling ”scared”. The TV star had battled depression over the years and feared she was about to encounter another “dark episode”. But she told how caring husband Brian helped her through. Ulrika, 50, first experienced symptoms four years ago but didn’t realise what they meant. The mum-of-four said: “Depression has been a regular feature of my life. “I thought I was going into a very dark episode and I had no warning of it beforehand. There was nothing that would’ve given me any signs towards it. “And then came the most unimaginable anxiety that I’ve not known before. Anxiety, like, proper panic – at one stage I thought my head was going to explode. “I had anxiety over the tiniest thing, and then you become even more scared because you’re anxious.” Super-fit Ulrika said she also put on weight but didn’t realise why until she saw her GP. She said: “Then my GP just said, ‘I think you’re probably perimenopausal, it’s probably starting,’ and I was like, ‘No,’ because at that stage I was 46.” Memory loss was an unexpected symptom. Sp eakin g on Lorraine as part of a campaign called The M Word, Ulrika added: “I took a friend of mine aside and said to her, ‘I’m really worried that I might be getting early onset Alzheimer’s.’” Ulrika explained to her children why she was acting differently. She added: “My husband is very understanding, very patient. And I told the kids too. I thought, ‘You need to understand why I’m being a little bit strange.’”
I had anxiety over the tiniest thing. I thought my head would explode ULRIKA