featured-image

Charlotte Church has reflected on her cousin’s “heartbreaking” ordeal with health anxiety. Chatting to her relative, former magician Elliot Cooper, in the latest episode of her BBC podcast Kicking Back with the Cardiffians the Cardiff-born singer-songwriter learned about when he first started to struggle with his mental health. After stopping work as a magician due to anxiety Elliot quickly became interested in photography.

He told Charlotte that one day he had climbed Pen y Fan in order to capture a picture from the top and he started to feel a “pulsating” feeling in his neck. Upon phoning NHS Direct Elliot discovered he’d had a panic attack. He described how after returning home to his mum’s house he became increasingly worried about the same thing happening again.



READ MORE: This Morning fans want special duo to take over presenting show READ MORE: Popular BBC sitcom to return after nearly a decade as original cast reunites Elliot said: “It just got worse and worse and then developed into agoraphobia. I just became practically housebound in my mother's house. I couldn't watch films anymore, I couldn't watch TV, I couldn't play games, and it got to the point where I just couldn't leave the house.

I was in such a stage of delusion that I believed that if I got up off the sofa I was going to die.” Charlotte remembered Elliot calling her when he was exhibiting the symptoms and she said: “It felt like you’d changed overnight. Your world became so small and.

Back to Health Page