Asan N’Jie couldn’t be a passenger in a car for three years after he was in a car crash.
The ‘Emmerdale’ actor’s character Ellis Chapman will suffer panic attacks next week as part of post-traumatic stress disorder after he was stabbed, and the former ‘Mount Pleasant’ star can partly relate to his alter-ego’s predicament because he suffered after being in a car smash six years ago.
He said: "It’s been really interesting [to film], because obviously there are people in the world who are suffering from this.
"I can sort of relate to it in a way because five or six years ago I was in a car crash, luckily everything was fine, and the car actually flipped over. I was in the passenger seat.
"And ever since that, now I’m not too bad, but two or three years after that I wouldn’t dare get in the passenger seat with someone.
"I’d just get really stressed. It was that feeling of not feeling like you’re in control.
"So I can sort of relate to people who have had a big event happen to them and how they deal with it in the future."
Asan is hopeful others who suffer from panic attacks will be able to open up about their plight more after watching Ellis’ situation in ‘Emmerdale’.
He said: "It’s honestly not as easy as people think [to get over]. People might think panic attacks are not as bad as people make out but they really are and it’s a serious thing.
"If we do touch on things like this then it’s going to bring light to more people and they’ll be able to come out and speak about it more."
Asan N’Jie couldn’t be car passenger for 3 years
