health

I'm a Celebrity's Tegan Martin and Casey Donovan reflect on their battles with anxiety.

 

Tegan Martin and Casey Donovan have bonded over their battles with anxiety on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

The former Miss Universe Australia and Australian Idol winner candidly discussed their individual mental health struggles while other campmates cooked during Monday night’s episode.

Donovan shared that she had written a song about her anxiety, telling Martin the illness was “pretty horrible”.

“I think I just buried so many things over my life that I think in the last few years have just… I couldn’t keep pushing it down it actually had to come out,” the 28-year-old said.

Listen: Mia Freedman explains why routine helps her to manage her anxiety on I Don’t Know How She Does It.

Donovan said anxiety had struck her in 2015 and she went to hospital three times last year, describing her panic episodes as feeling like heart attacks.

Martin said she could relate to the singer’s struggle, revealing her anxiety and chronic fatigue had emerged shortly after she was crowned Miss Universe Australia in 2014.

“It was just after I’d won Miss Universe Australia and I was trying to adapt to my new life and I was being papped and I was being criticised daily and being judged,” she told the camera.

The 24-year-old said her sudden thrust into the limelight caused her to question her life.

Tegan Martin in the jungle.(Image via Channel 10.)
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"I didn't like the life that I'd created when I woke up one day and all of a sudden had cameras in my face and I just thought, 'What have I done? I don't know how to deal with this'. It happened so overnight for me."

"I think that's why I got chronic fatigue in then and kept ignoring my feeling and... kept powering through and I wore myself out. I was getting chronic anxiety and I didn't know what it was," she told Donovan.

Martin said she was "really lucky" to have adapted and learned to deal with her anxiety, but acknowleged there were others who suffered with the "quite debilitating" condition.

Donovan told the cameras the discussion had been helpful.

"Talking with Tegan and telling each other our stories you know you're not alone in this world with anxiety. I think it's good to talk about it," she said.

"Just know you're going to be okay which is the hardest thing to say to yourself when you're going through something like that."

Fans praised the two women for being so open about their mental health battles, thanking them on Twitter.

Brava, Casey and Tegan.