Abbey Clancy on seeking help after suffering health scare 'It's a horrible thing to have'
Abbey Clancy seems to have it all with her happy marriage and family, successful podcast, and lucrative brand and modelling deals. But the star has opened up about her ongoing battle with anxiety, revealing everything she does to try and keep it in check and stop herself from "catastrophising everything".
Launching her solo podcast project, Exhibit A, Liverpool-born Abbey, who is married to footballer Peter Crouch, revealed her habit of always thinking the worst "scares her", so she sought help earlier this year to manage the anxiety.
Recalling one particular episode, Abbey revealed she visited her GP after googling her symptoms from wearing a pair of too-tight jeans, and suspecting she had something like Multiple Sclerosis. After being reassured by the doctor that all was well, the mum of four embarked on a course of hypnotherapy instead.
She told MailOnline: "I really suffer from health anxiety, and the worst thing you can do is Google symptoms. It is something that I always do, and I have had to train myself out of it.
"I do scare myself sometimes with self-diagnosing, which I don't recommend anyone to do. But this is something I've been working on, and I have tried hypnotherapy for it, and it does work. It does work."
She described herself as a "huge worrier", but says the hypnotherapy treatment is helping her to change her thought processes. She revealed she didn't seek a formal diagnosis of anxiety because she was familiar enough with all the signs, and said she's adopted simple changes in her day to day life to help ease her symptoms.
She continued: "It's a horrible thing to have, but it is something I am dealing with, and I've spoken about it on our podcast before."
Following on from her success as co-host of the podcast The Therapy Couch, which she records with Peter, Abbey has launched her own show, Exhibit A. In it, she meets "with inspiring and fascinating figures from across the globe and digs deeper. Breaking away from surface-level interviews, Exhibit A uncovers the secrets of success and life lessons from the individuals who are shaping the world around us," according to its website.
Abbey hopes listeners will find her interviews inspiring, saying: "You know, some of the survival stories have just been a mega. And I think for anyone looking for help, how to get up from rock bottom...some of the guests we've had on are just, you know, perfect for that.'"
