Roxanne Pallet has revealed she was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder following her controversial appearance on Celebrity Big Brother.
The former Emmerdale actress, 36, told Closer magazine she was ‘hiding a huge breakdown’ during her time in Big Brother after recently being involved in a car accident.
The actress also said she began to have nightmares of a house fire she was in when she was 16 during her time in the house.
Roxanne Pallet has revealed she was diagnosed with comlex post-traumatic stress disorder following her controversial appearance on Celebrity Big Brother
She said: ‘Everyone has struggles, and I’m not using mine to justify my behaviour. But looking back, I should have got help 20 years ago.
‘Two weeks before Celebrity Big Brother, I’d been in a car crash and the minute it happened I was on edge and defensive. I was hiding a huge breakdown.
‘My mind had gone to mush, I was getting flashbacks of the house fire and I wasn’t thinking straight. I kept changing my mind and being erratic.
‘I was jumping to conclusions that weren’t accurate, yet still I laughed and put on a pretense. These invisible wounds were destroying me.’
The former Emmerdale actress, 36, said she was ‘hiding a huge breakdown’ during her time in Big Brother after recently being involved in a car accident
Roxanne left the Big Brother house after wrongly accusing Ryan Thomas of punching her in the stomach.
The actress was widely criticised after the incident and told the magazine she regrets that it happened.
She said: ‘I absolutely regret what happened on the show, one hundred per cent. I got it monumentally wrong, and I’m sorry to Ryan and his family, for the pain I inflicted on him and others who were watching.
‘I think it’s important, when you’ve done something wrong, that you immediately hold your hands up and make sure everyone knows you’re sorry.’
She said: ‘Two weeks before Celebrity Big Brother, I’d been in a car crash and the minute it happened I was on edge and defensive. I was hiding a huge breakdown’ (pictured in 2018)
Controversy: Roxanne left the Big Brother house after wrongly accusing Ryan Thomas of punching her in the stomach
Roxanne has since been to therapy and was put on antidepressants for panic disorder.
She began seeing a therapist who she said was ‘shocked’ at the state she was in.
She said: ‘After shutting myself away, I knew I had to go from hiding to healing. Reading the online comments was the breakthrough moment.
‘I read one that said “she needs help”, and that was the defining moment, because it was true.
‘My doctor put me on antidepressants for panic disorder and depression and I got in contact with a mental health charity who put me in touch with a therapist in Scotland, who was shocked at the state of me.
Help: Roxanne has since been to therapy and was put on antidepressants for panic disorder (pictured in 2018)
‘I told him I’d been feeling like this since I was 16, and asked him to make it go away. He said the car crash had triggered PTSD from anxiety from previous traumas in my life and he immediately diagnosed me.’
Roxanne experienced many difficulties after the Celebrity Big Brother controversy and said she lost her appetite and her hair began to fall out.
She said: ‘It was an awful blur. All my insecurities were heightened. I had feelings of paranoia, and feared something bad would happen to me.
Aftermath: Roxanne admitted she was nervous to speak publicly as her confidence has been hit in the months since Celebrity Big Brother (pictured in 2018)
‘When the phone rang, I’d feel sick. If I passed someone on the street, I was convinced they meant me harm. I was told that people were saying they wanted to throw acid in my face and that I was more hated than a murderer.
‘I lost a stone and a half, and dropped to a size 4 during the period between leaving Celebrity Island With Bear Grylls and after CBB.
Interview: Roxanne spoke in the latest issue of Closer magazine
‘My hair was falling out, and my insomnia got worse. I felt drained, exhausted and out of breath. I wasn’t eating or sleeping or leaving the house, and I was only talking to three other people.’
Roxanne admitted she was nervous to speak publicly as her confidence has been hit in the months since Celebrity Big Brother.
She said: ‘It’s been a real mountain to climb, for me to get to this point today. I’ve been nervous about it, because my confidence has taken a knock.
‘It’s daunting, as people still have their opinions of me, which they are completely entitled to.
‘It’s bad enough when one person doesn’t like you, but when thousands are against you… But I do understand it.
‘The last few months have been the most valuable and rewarding of my life. I’ve completely reset my mind and my thoughts.
‘I went off the grid for therapy, which was needed for my mental health.’
The full interview appears in this week’s Closer magazine, on sale now.
She said: ‘The last few months have been the most valuable and rewarding of my life. I’ve completely reset my mind and my thoughts’
