Stacey Solomon is scared of dying.
The ‘Loose Women’ panellist broke down in tears during today’s (03.11.17) show as she revealed she’s been battling with the crippling phobia since she gave birth to her first child Zachary, nine, at the age of 19 but she has admitted she feels "guilty" talking about her fear because there are some people out there who are fighting for their lives.
She said: "It does make me uncomfortable to be talking about it."
Before she added: "I think it probably started when I had my first child. I was 19. I think the trauma of giving birth made me feel vulnerable and I wasn’t invincible.
"Giving birth made me feel like I could die any minute. I felt very fragile and that anything could happen to me and I wasn’t in control of my life."
The 28-year-old former singer spent most of the morning with hypnotist Paul McKenna as he tried to get to the bottom of her fear and what sparked the phobia.
Speaking to the panel, he said: "I’ve been working with Stacey all day. This isn’t just a phobia, it’s a new hybrid. It’s a phobia but it’s mixed in with an obsessive compulsive disorder. We’re all compulsive about some things. Some compulsions are good compulsions, but Stacey’s compulsiveness has overlapped with her health and she now spends a long time worrying about her health and catastrophising."
The 53-year-old behavioural scientist then worked out that if Stacey spends 20 minutes a day worrying about death for the rest of her life, she’d spend 80,000 hours anxious.
He then went through some exercises with Stacey – who also has five-year-old son Leighton – to help her deal with her crippling phobia.
Stacey Solomon has phobia of death
