MY SECRET BATTLE WITH DEPRESSION
Vorderman revealse to torment of m menopause
I’M A Celebrity contestant Carol Vorderman has lifted the lid on how she kept secret a battle with depression tha that was brought on by the men-opause.
The 55-year-old TV star admitted she was so low last year sh she “didn’t see the point in anyth thing”.
It is only now, as she prepares to enter the jungle alongside a ho host of other big names, that she fee feels brave enough to talk about he her trauma.
C Carol said: “I got to my 50s – an and I love my 50s – but the menopause is a bit challenging. It wa was last year particularly. I had six months when I was really low low. I’m not a depressed person, but in that space of time I was genuinely depressed. It got to Christmas and I thought: ‘ God, what on Earth is wrong? I can’t bear this.’
“I analysed exactly the times that it happened and it was linked directly to the times that are important to a woman every month. “I thought: ‘That’s what it is.’” When the former Countdown co-host was asked if she ever felt suicidal, she replied: “No. I would never do anything like that because I’ve got children. But I couldn’t see the point of anything.
“I was lower than I’d ever been in my life.
“It floored me – absolutely floored me. I was really surprised about that.”
At her lowest ebb Prestatyn-- raised Carol went to see a specialist who gave her treatment which she said changed her life.
She explained: “I have little gels I have to put on every day. It’s called Estrogel. One for oestrogen and one for testosterone.
“From the moment I started tak- ing them I’ve never felt low again. And your skin changes back to what it used to be a little bit. It’ll never go back to what it would be in your 20s or 30s but, on the mental health side, I’ve not had a single second of what I felt last year.”
She said there needed to more awareness about the hormonal changes women experience in later life and admitted to now feeling reborn.
“I literally live every day, I love my life. I skip everywhere because I’m happy,” she said.
Tonight she will be seen entering the Australian jungle as the latest series of ITV reality series I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! begins. Among her fellow campmates will be Strictly Come Dancing star Ola Jordan – hotly tipped as a potential Queen of the Jungle – along with former footballer Wayne Bridge, actor Larry Lamb and Diversity dancer Jordan Banjo.