Olly Murs has opened up about undergoing therapy for anxiety after a panic attack left him struggling to breathe on The Graham Norton Show.
The singer revealed that his “heart was pounding” and he felt a “genuine panic” which prompted him to forget his song lyrics ahead of his performance on the chat show.
“My heart was pounding and I couldn’t breathe,” he told the Mirror.
“I’m standing behind the mic and I’m talking trying to calm myself down, thinking: ‘What’s going on? I’ve never ever been like this.' It was genuine panic.
“I was looking at my mum and dad in the audience and trying to focus, despite the fact I’d just forgotten my lyrics. It was just a routine performance but I didn’t know what was going on.”
Murs, 34, revealed that he had also felt overwhelmed by panic when he learned that he had earned a place on The Voice’s judging panel.
“I’ll never forget, I was driving back from Braintree to Witham, in Essex, just waiting for a call from my management to say if I’d got The Voice,” he recalled.
“As soon as they told me I’d got it, my friend with me was so excited for me. He was like: ‘You’re doing The Voice. This is huge.’
“I was like, ‘Yeah, it is.’ Then I just had this sudden, overwhelming panic. Whether it was anxiety or depression, I was like: ‘I don’t think I can do this.’”
He said that after trying to “piece it together” by himself, he decided that he needed to seek help.
“I tried to piece it together myself but I couldn’t. It made me feel down and I said, ‘I need to go and see someone about this,’” he told the paper.
Murs said that the therapy sessions helped him understand how criticism of his 2015 stint as X Factor co-host had affected his confidence.
“It was the idea of going on TV again, maybe making a mistake and being put in the spotlight again with people saying negative things about me,” he said.
“I’ve only ever had a career that’s been so positive. And when you get that little bit of negativity, it hurts.”
