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‘I just broke’: Daisy Lowe’s battle with clinical depression

Daisy Lowe battled "clinical depression" following the death of her grandfather.

The 31-year-old model was left heartbroken when her grandfather, Eddie Davis, passed away in 2016, and has now said his death affected her so badly she began to have "heart palpitations" and "lost the ability to speak".

She recalled: "I wanted to pay off my mortgage faster than I originally planned. It was one of those big dreams. I was 28 at the time and I thought that I’d be buying a home with someone. Maybe in the back of my mind I thought, ‘Wow I’m really doing this on my own’. And I’m doing it on my own because my gramps isn’t here to hold my hand.

"I had no idea how much I was struggling, but I was really clutching at straws. I was frightening myself. I was having heart palpitations and I was quite shaky and talking very quickly. I got to Christmas and I just broke."

Daisy says her battle with her mental health left her with no appetite, and even saw her hair begin to "fall out".

She added: "The strangest thing happened. I think that I was so burned out that I lost the ability to speak. All I could really say was, ‘I’m sad’ or ‘I’m scared’ or ‘I feel really anxious’.

"Eventually I was like, ‘God, is this going to last for ever?’

"I’d been to the doctors and I’d been signed off work with clinical depression. I had been tried on a few different antidepressants and all of them had very adverse effects.

"I didn’t sleep for four months. The insomnia was so unbearable. I was shaking, I lost my appetite and my hair started falling out. It was horrific."

The model’s mother, Pearl Lowe, intervened to get help for her daughter, and Daisy agreed to see psychotherapist John McKeown, who runs rehabilitation centre Ibiza Calm.

Daisy believes she probably "wouldn’t be here" if it were not for her mother’s intervention, and now makes sure to actively work on her mental health so she can avoid another relapse.

Speaking on John’s podcast, ‘The Wagon’, she said: "Every morning I write three things I’m grateful for and three things that are my intentions for the day.

"Even if I’ve woken up a bit groggy, had a bad dream or haven’t slept that well, that at least steers me in a positive direction.

"I know that without talking about this stuff there will still be a stigma attached to it.

"I don’t know anyone who doesn’t struggle with their mental health, be it addiction, burnout, depression.

"Everyone experiences it. Whether they admit it is another thing."