Janet Street Porter: The Loose Women star on her crippling health disorder

Janet Street Porter tells it how it is. The feisty character doesn’t miss a beat to giving her say on Loose Women. However, there’s a health struggle the star revealed on the show.

On the popular daytime TV show Loose Women, Janet confessed she suffers from anxiety.

Her shocking admission followed her fellow panellist, Stacey Solomon’s, candid revelation that she struggles with the condition.

The topic of anxiety snowballed from Kaye Adams – another feature panellist – highlight of Stacey’s Twitter post.

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It read: “Oh, hi anxiety”, to which Stacey replied: “It’s something that I know is part of me and I’ve stopped trying to fight against it.

“I think I’m quite good at managing how it manifests itself, but it probably gets worse at night time when I have time to stop and think about it.”

Addressing the audience, Stacey continued: “I’ve just got to accept that this is part of my personality.”

And this is when Janet revealed her own health battles with anxiety.

“I get things out, especially at night, I get things out of all proportion and have a re-run of things in my head,” she began.

Describing how she manages her anxiety, she said: “Then I have to write it down, and then I read it in the morning [and] it looks stupid.”

But Janet hasn’t always had a sensible approach to dealing with the disorder.

“I haven’t ever got outside help for anxiety,” she revealed.

Remembering back to an anxious-provoking event, Janet describes the situation in great detail.

“I went to see I, Tonya [a film] and was in a good mood, and when I made a few jokes about Linda in her swimsuit, a couple of nasty people were on at me on Twitter.

“When I got home I had a major anxiety attack about whether I’d been too horrible to Linda.

“Even strong confident women like me – someone can get through to me.”

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What does anxiety feel like?

Mental health charity MIND explained: “Anxiety is what we feel when we are worried, tense or afraid – particularly about things that are about to happen, or which we think could happen in the future.”

It continued: “Anxiety is a natural human response when we perceive that we are under threat.”

Anxiety becomes a problem when it interferes with everyday life. MIND recognises the following as a sign of an anxiety disorder:

  • Your feelings of anxiety are very strong or last for a long time
  • Your fears or worries are out of proportion to the situation
  • You avoid situations that might cause you to feel anxious
  • Your worries feel very distressing or are hard to control
  • You regularly experience symptoms of anxiety, which could include panic attacks
  • You find it hard to go about your everyday life or do things you enjoy.

Self-care for anxiety

Just like Janet suggested, MIND advises anxiety sufferers to keep a diary.

Specifically, the charity suggests to make a note of what happens when you’re feeling anxious.

This is a way to spot patterns and identify anxiety-provoking triggers.

It’s also important to note down what is going well to have a more balanced perspective.

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