Jameela: Filling in for Fearne on Radio 1 was terrifying
- Published
Jameela Jamil knows a lot of people may find it hard to believe that someone who presents the UK's Official Chart every week on Radio 1 should get so anxious about covering for another presenter on the station.
But she did. And she blames something she calls "the fear".
In a new documentary for Radio 1 Stories Jameela reveals she's struggled for years with anxiety.
It's one of the most common mental health disorders in the UK.
"I sometimes get so anxious about appearing publicly that since I was about 19 I've been suffering from panic attacks and severe anxiety."
She says her confident persona on air "is only one side of me... I'm really quite shy".
Recently bosses at Radio 1 asked Jameela to stand in for Fearne Cotton for a week while she was on holiday.
Fearne's show gets around five million listeners a day and Jameela says it was "amazing and an incredible opportunity" to be asked.
But she admits: "It would have been great had I been able to not freak out about it.
Fearne Cotton presents weekdays 10:00-12:45 BST on BBC Radio 1
"The first day was horrible. I didn't actually really enjoy it because I was terrified. I was so gripped with fear."
She said by the end of the week she hadn't managed to sleep for more than an hour without waking in a panic.
Eventually she says she managed by going into a kind of "trance" and get on with the job.
Listening to the radio you probably wouldn't have noticed though because Jameela says she's able "to hide it quite well because of years of practice".
"I find it quite difficult to talk about my anxiety problems," she says.
"Are people gonna judge me for it? Will people still like me when they see inside my head?"
James Arthur says he ended up in hospital due to anxiety after winning the The X Factor
The documentary also features 2012 X Factor winner James Arthur.
"It's something I've had for a long time but never really understood it," he says.
He reveals he ended up in a New York hospital thinking he was "going to die" over anxiety about working with a team of top American producers.
Jameela Jamil presents Radio 1 Stories: The Fear on BBC Radio 1 at 9pm, Tuesday 30 September.
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