Former Coronation Street actress Denise Welch has shared her experiences on mental health and panic attacks on ITV’s Loose Women as she described the terrifying feeling

Loose Women star Denise Welch has spoken openly regarding her experience of panic attacks and revealed she felt she was “dying”.

The ladies were back for another instalment on Wednesday (August 14) to discuss a range of topics. But during the show, presenter Kaye Adams asked Denise, Brenda Edwards and Frankie Bridge their opinion on disclosing the truth about their health.

The subject arose after a weather reporter in Australia openly shared he was having a panic attack live on air. In an extremely candid reveal, Nate Byrne from ABC News asked his co-host Lisa Millar to step in for him.

He told viewers at the time: “I’m actually going to need to stop for a second,” he said. “Some of you may know that I occasionally get affected by panic attacks and actually that is happening right now.” This then led Kaye to ask her Loose Women co-stars about their experiences and whether they would reveal all.

Denise Welch shared her panic attack experience
Denise Welch shared her panic attack experience(Image: ITV)

Denise who revealed she suffered from panic attacks shared her story and said: “Mine would come completely [unexpectedly] from nowhere. Not even thinking about anything and you would think that you were choking and dying.”

After hearing Denise’s story as well as Australian weather reporter, Nate, fans headed to X formerly known as Twitter to share their thoughts. One viewer said: “I can’t help thinking that having a panic attack on TV could possibly affect your TV career.”

Another said: “#loosewomen I think that the guy with the panic attack did the absolutely right thing by explaining what he was going through. Well done lad.”

The women spoke about opening up on their health
The women spoke about opening up on their health

While a third also shared: “Panic attacks are horrific. Wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy.”

Describing her panic attacks in more detail, Denise added: “My analogy is always you’re driving on the motorway and you nearly have a crash. And your heart is racing manically.

“You pull over to the side, you don’t have a crash and after a few minutes you’ve calmed down. It’s like that but it never goes away.