Loose Women's Nadia Sawalha reveals hidden daily impact of her 'horrendous' health issue
Loose Women panelist Nadia Sawalha has spoken candidly about a health issue that "steals the joy of life". Detailing her experience in a video message shared with fans just days ago, she described it as "horrendeous" and "exhausting".
Nadia, 60, has opened up about her experience with health anxiety in a vlog on YouTube. The former EastEnders star shared on the platform that it is "ruining" her life and she suggested in the video uploaded last week that she worries numerous times a day about potential diagnoses.
The actor said: "I'm always worrying that I have got some new and dreadful disease." Nadia, who told viewers that she 'obsesses' over her concerns, revealed that her anxiety includes over the prospect of having dementia and cancer.
Nadia said that she will see something on social media or be told about a condition and "that's it". She added: "I just obsess." She then mentioned dementia, which she finds "petrifying," and recalled thinking about it up to 30 times on the day that she was recording the vlog, released on Friday.
She said: "I probably today questioned and I'm really not exaggerating now, I'm really now, I probably 25 to 35 times today ... been to Loose Women, been on the train, been on the bus, talked to all sorts of different people, popped into a shop ... there wasn't any thing I did today, any interaction, any transaction where I didn't go 'oh my god, that was a bit weird, is that dementia?' It's horrendous."
Speaking about her anxieties, Nadia said dementia is "one of them," alongside breast cancer and bowel cancer. She said: "Now, if you think about it, those are all diseases or illnesses that there's been fantastic work done on awareness."
She added: "Don't get me wrong awareness is good, lives are saved by awareness - but I think I'm too aware." Nadia then brought up articles warning against missing early signs of conditions, saying: "Seems that everything is an early sign."
Nadia said she will occasionally "allow" herself to "hover over a really rare thing," giving the infection Weil's disease as an example. She said: "[It's] caused by rats in water, right. I never swim in fresh water where there's rats, but I can literally convince myself that it could be something that I possibly could have."
Nadia continued by saying that she is "constantly looking at moles" due to skin cancer concerns. She later shared that she also worries about sight loss, asbestos and autoimmune condition Guillain-Barré syndrome, for example.
Speaking about her experience, she said: "Oh my god, it's just ... it's so draining." Nadia described it as "exhausting" and said: "It steals the joy of life because I'll be having a nice time with the family or something and then I think 'oh well I'm gonna have [a health issue] soon and then I won't be here'."
Nadia told viewers that she can't speak about her health anxiety with some people in her life. She said: "I can't discuss it in front of my family because the kids go mad, they're terrified." At the end of the vlog, before laughing, she said: "So it's just constant worry and misery."
According to the NHS, health anxiety is related to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). It adds that treatment for the condition can include talking therapy like cognitive behavioural therapy, known as CBT, and medication.
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