Coronation Street actress Samia Longchambon has admitted that her anxiety has been bad 'especially in the last few years'.
The 39-year-old star appeared on Tuesday's Loose Women live from her Corrie dressing room where she spoke about her own mental health.
Samia, who plays Maria Connor on the ITV soap, said that she's never really hid her struggles but hasn't always been asked about them.
"I never really hid it, I think everyone who knows me knows that I’m quite an anxious person and a bit of a worrier and being really cautious with everything.
"I've had anxiety since I was a child and when I was a child my mum took me to the doctors and they first diagnosed asthma because I couldn't get a deep breath, so they ended up giving me inhalers when I was like 11 thinking that it was asthma and it wasn't, it was anxiety.
"But I think as a child back then in the early nineties, it wasn’t really talked about, children’s mental health or having issues like that. But I've never hid it, I've just never publicly talked about it, I've never been asked about it or else I would have talked about it.
Asked how she coped during lockdown, Samia said: "Yeah that was really anxiety-inducing listening to the news every day in the early days of the pandemic.
"But I think being at home, for me, I'm such a home bird anyway, I'm way happier with a takeout on the couch rather than being out with lots of people in a bar.
"I've always kinda been like that, so that side of it I quite enjoyed not having to go places and see lots of people.
She continued: "I’m just happier being with my family and my close friends at home anyway, so that side of it, I actually felt was better for my anxiety in some ways."
Earlier this year, Samia began training as a therapist in order to try and understand cognitive behavioural therapy and how it works.
When asked why she decided to do this, she replied: "Especially in the last few years, my anxiety has been quite bad actually. I's say the sort of last three plus years, it's been really bad.
"I don’t know if it’s anything to do with being a mum and my kids getting a bit older, I don't know.
"So over the years I've had loads of different types of therapy to try and help and I just wanted to get an insight to what's behind the therapy and how it works and sort of be my own therapist," she added.
"I need to further it a lot more before I can't start providing a service to people, but it's been really eye-opening to see what's behind the therapy and make sense of it myself."
Loose Women airs weekdays at 12:30pm on ITV.
