HELEN Flanagan has shared a brutally honest insight into her on-going health battle.
The Celebs Go Dating star, who found herself in trouble this week when it was revealed she had a secret boyfriend off the show, shared a picture of herself to discuss the often overlooked illness.
Helen has PMDD – premenstrual dysphoric disorder – an extreme form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) that can have a dramatic effect on someone’s physical and mental health.
Away from her usual glamorous bikini selfies, Helen is seen in her pyjamas, looking in pain while holding a tampon, with her head in her hands.
She wrote: “My PMDD has been a nightmare this week, worst it’s been since the beginning of the year.
“It’s horrible with hormones as you can’t control what the hormones do to your brain.
“I was so happy on holiday my hormones were stable and then as soon as I came back I was the week due before my period and the hormones just made me feel so depressed.”
Helen revealed it had become so bad that she was “crying all the time”, didn’t want to leave the house, and felt exhausted – which was particularly hard as she looked after her three children.
“Any other women that struggle with this I feel you ,” she wrote. “Then as soon as you bleed you just feel such a relief as you know mentally you’re going to feel ok again and normal.”
“I read PMDD is more common in women with ADHD which is me I think I’ve have everything actually, bit of OCD too, might as well throw myself in the bin x”
Helen continued in the lengthy post that she had attempted going on the pill to curb the symptoms, but they did little to help.
Thankfully she’s largely managed to get it under control with ‘cycle-syncing’ in order to understand her menstrual cycle more and prepare herself for harder days, with exercise, monitoring her alcohol intake and diet helping as well.
“I used to never let myself cry or really feel my emotions and fight them which I think made it all worse,” she said. “I got myself in this kind of mentality when me and the father of my kids separated to cope really and was almost constantly in a not natural masculine energy.
“Now I don’t, I be totally in my feminine energy. I cry when I need to cry. I get angry when I’m angry and I let myself feel sad ( only for a certain amount of time though.”
“Anyway I just wanted you to know share this picture of me on the loo this morning ,” she wrote. “Just before the school run as all my kids shout MUM MUM a million times.
“It was a relief to come on my period this morning and for all the women that struggle with the same thing.”
She also credited Vicky Pattison for also opening up about her own experience with the diagnosis.
Followers quickly flocked to celebrate the star and thank her for being so open about the diagnosis.
PREMENSTRUAL Dysphoric Disorder is a very severe form of PMS and causes emotional and physical changes during the week or two before a period.
There are many symptoms such as anxiety or depression, feeling angry, tense or even suicidal.
Physical signs include headaches, bloating and pains in the muscles or joints as well as difficulty sleeping.
Symptoms usually begin to improve when bleeding starts and disappear by the time a period ends.
Exercising regularly, reducing stress and eating well can help ease symptoms.
Anti-depressants and hormone patches or injections are used to control more severe cases.
“You’re doing amazing! I’m So proud of you,” she wrote. “thank you SO much for speaking about this so openly and normalising our emotions and the cycle syncing benefits for other women to explore!
Makes me emotional.”
Another added: “so good seeing someone with a platform talking about this”
“I don’t think it’s spoken about nearly enough. Thank you for normalising it!” said a third.
Helen’s confession comes after she found herself in hot water on Celebs Go Dating by admitting she was already in a relationship.
The Rosie Webster actress dropped the bombshell following a fast-flirting event, and shared that she was in fact “in love” with her secret boyfriend.
This led to fans taking to social media to share their anger at Helen being on the show believing she ‘just wanted to be on TV’.
The segment came just a day after Helen was seen weeping when she revealed her “situationship” with boxer David Haye and admitted she was also in love with him.
