Jodie Kidd admits that modelling made her "anxiety a lot worse".
The 40-year-old blonde beauty was discovered by photographer Terry O’Neil when she was on a beach in Barbados at the age of 15 and began her career when she was 16, and now Jodie has revealed that by the time she had reached her late teens she suffered from the crippling mental health condition and found it hard to cope because doctors knew little about the illness and how to treat it.
In an interview with The Times newspaper, Jodie said: "Modelling made the anxiety a lot worse. I came straight out of school into Concorde and chauffeurs, flying all around the world, doing amazing things. But I just couldn’t cope. I was always in fight or flight mode: there was a lot of appetite, palpitations, my palms were always sweating, I wasn’t sleeping and then everyday you’re picking up newspapers and being brutalised.
"I was supported amazingly well, but it was terrifying. The medical world didn’t know anything about it so I’d go to the doctor saying I’m getting very little sleep and doing a huge amount of work, and they’d turn around and say, ‘Breathe into a paper bag.’ On put me on beta-blockers. Basically the message was, ‘Pull your socks up.’ "
The British fashionista has recently released her own wellbeing book with her personal trainer Amelie Khellaf-Govett, entitled ‘Balance Your Life: A 6-week Eating and Exercise Plan for a Calmer, Healthier You’.
Jodie admits her own struggles with various fad diets led her to go on a health and fitness journey of her own making.
She added: "I’ve dabbled in Atkins. I’ve dabbled in this and that, but you feel – can I say s**t? – you really feel s**t: lethargic and starved and moody. It was so terrifying. If you ate a potato, it was, like, ‘Oh no, that’s it! You’ve buggered it’, whereas Amelie says, ‘If you eat a potato, just do another ten minutes in the morning on your exercise bike.’ "
Jodie Kidd: Modelling gave me anxiety
