Helen Flanagan: I considered ending it all

Helen Flanagan: I considered ending it all
Helen Flanagan: I considered ending it all (Image credit: PA)

Actress Helen Flanagan has admitted that she was so depressed during her time on Coronation Street that at one point she considered ending her life in a car crash. Speaking to The Sun - in her first interview since appearing in I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here , the 22-year-old revealed she has suffered from anxiety attacks since childhood and has also suffered from Attention Deficit Disorder, as well as taking bipolar medication. However she admitted the trouble started after she stopped taking her tablets after someone on the Corrie set made a joke at her expense. "One day I was on the set and a cast member - who was also a friend - joked, 'Helen Flanagan, she rattles when she walks!'" Helen recalled. "It really hurt me. I went home that night and cried my eyes out. I stopped taking my medication for a year and a half and didn't tell anyone. It was the worst thing I could have done. Helen admitted her emotions were 'up and down' afterwards to such an extent afterwards that it triggered suicidal thoughts. "One day I was driving into the ITV Studios and I thought, 'Wouldn't it be great if I just crashed my car now and it was all over?'" she said. "After that I knew I had to quit Corrie and get some help." The actress added that she would not have done I'm A Celebrity previously, but her medication now helps to keep her ADD and bipolar disorder under control. And despite being chosen to do seven trials - and coming back from several empty-handed after refusing to attempt them - she was upbeat about her time in the jungle. "It was a real test for me and I learned a lot about myself," she admitted. "I can honestly say that I enjoyed every minute of my time in camp."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.