Kym Marsh opens up about anxiety that made her feel like she was 'going to die'

Kym Marsh opens up about how she deals with her anxiety. (REX)
Kym Marsh opens up about how she deals with her anxiety. (REX)

Coronation Street’s Kym Marsh has opened up about the severity of her anxiety that made her feel she was ‘going to die’.

The former Hear’Say pop star-turned-Corrie actor revealed the struggle with her mental health, describing it in detail to the Sun.

Speaking about when her anxiety manifested at the start, she recalls it coming over her in severe fashion: ‘The first time it ever happened, I thought I was going to die’, she revealed. ‘I actually thought I was going to die, and I was driving my car as well.’

‘It’s a really frightening, really scary thing to experience.’

But Kym, 42, said that she’s now able to manage her anxiety better, regarding it as ‘as an old friend’.

Over time, the actress has learned to process her mental health problems and not allow them to dominate her life, as she explains: ‘I know what’s going to happen, I know I’m not going to die, I just know that it’s going to come and go.

‘When you learn to deal with it that way, it becomes manageable and once you start on that path, it tends to disappear quite quickly,’ she said.

<span>Steve McDonald, as played by Simon Gregson, approaches Michelle Connor, as played by Kym Marsh, and tells her about Robert Preston’s, as played by Tristan Gemmill, steroid abuse and heart attack. </span>(REX)
Steve McDonald, as played by Simon Gregson, approaches Michelle Connor, as played by Kym Marsh, and tells her about Robert Preston’s, as played by Tristan Gemmill, steroid abuse and heart attack. (REX)

‘You do have to get yourself to those places,’ she warned, as the star acknowledged that anxiety doesn’t just disappear without tackling it. ‘But again that is a case of mind over matter and you know that’s not real, so mentally you have to tell yourself that it’s not reality and try to get out of that as quickly as possible,’ she shared.

Kym, who plays Michelle Connor, has been a part of the ITV soap since 2006. In 2007 she won Best Newcomer at the National Television Awards and after a decade on the show her future has been speculated over.

Recently, Kym revealed she’d renewed her contract but later teased that it may have all been ‘a red herring’, so viewers are still none the wiser in regards to her future in Weatherfield.

If you need help with anxiety and mental health, visit Anxiety UK for more information.

Catch Corrie weeknights, from 7.30pm, on ITV1.

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