Strictly Come Dancing reveal Coronation Street's Katie McGlynn will join show
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The star who left the ITV soap in 2019 was left heart-broken after character Sinead Tinker’s cancer diagnosis and subsequent death. Despite being a fictional character, the actress revealed that to her, Sinead had always been real, leading the actress to grieve her death. This period of mourning was so serious that the actress had to seek therapy as she “just kept crying”.
The star watched the distressing scenes of Sinead dying in husband Daniel’s (Rob Mallard) arms whilst wearing the same pyjamas she had worn when acting the scenes.
She told the Sunday Mirror: “I was sitting on my sofa watching the programme in which Sinead is told she has weeks to live, and I started to cry.
“The next day I just kept crying. I couldn’t stop. I ended up going to see a counsellor who told me that I was mourning Sinead.
“A month later I still feel like I’m really mourning her. It feels like waves of sadness coming over me.
“One minute I’ll be alright, then the next I’m in tears. It might sound weird, but to me Sinead has always been real.”
The actresses emotional reaction concerning the storyline came as a shock to the actress who has been jokingly mocked by friends before for having a “heart of stone”.
She said: “Suddenly I felt very vulnerable. It came as a shock and I thought, ‘I’d better do something about this’.”
Speaking on Loose Women after the star had processed her emotions she revealed that she had “underestimated the effect it had on [her] mental health”.
It wasn’t only her mental health that was affected, the star became so emotionally entrenched in Sinead that her physical health deteriorated too.
She said: “The emotion involved in Sinead dying meant I was just grabbing food and not really thinking about good nutrition,” she says.
“I was so tired when I got home that I’d order a takeaway. On set, there were a lot of chocolates, flap jacks and treats flying around.”
Despite the distressing experience and the toll it took on her health, the actress hoped that the storyline would encourage women to go and get a smear test. Indeed after the scenes aired women took to social media calling for the cervical cancer screening age to be lowered below the age of 25.
How does grief affect your health?
Marie Curie state that grief is a natural response when losing someone and it is common to produce physical symptoms.
Common physical symptoms of grief that people may not be aware of include:
- A hollow feeling in your stomach
- Tightness in your chest or throat
- Oversensitivity to noise
- Difficulty breathing
- Feeling very tired and weak
- A lack of energy
- Dry mouth
- An increase or decrease in appetite
- Finding it hard to sleep or fear of sleeping
- Aches and pains.
Complicated grief means that symptoms may linger or get worse. This keeps you in a heightened state of mourning that doesn’t let you heal from a loss.
Other more emotional symptoms include:
- Have trouble carrying out normal routines
- Isolate from others and withdraw from social activities
- Experience deep sadness, guilt or self-blame
- Believe that you did something wrong or could have prevented the death
- Feel life isn’t worth living without your loved one
- Wish you had died along with your loved one.
Experiencing these problems can also lead to deteriorating mental health and longer-term conditions such as depression and anxiety.
How to overcome grief
Although everyone copes with grief in their own way, if it is affecting your physical or mental health it is time to seek medical help.
Harvard Health explains that a study led by Dr Bui found that a specially designed eight-week mind-body programme can help reduce stress in older adults who have lost a spouse.
The main components of this programme included taking up yoga, maintaining a healthy diet, following a good sleep routine, socialising and keeping tabs on your health.
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