EastEnders star Jamie Borthwick (Image: PA)

BBC Strictly Come Dancing's Jamie Borthwick on 'really bad phobia' that affects him every morning

The EastEnders star admitted he had to seek therapy as he was really struggling

by · Birmingham Live

Strictly Come Dancing star Jamie Borthwick previously revealed he suffers from a 'really bad phobia' that affects him every morning. The EastEnders actor, 30, opened up about his struggle with health anxiety after being affected by emetophobia as he prepared to take on the London Marathon last year for Prostate Cancer UK.

The BBC star, whose dad and uncle both battled the disease successfully, revealed he is plagued with health fears every single morning when he wakes up. He admitted he had feared he also had the disease after worrying symptoms sent him to his doctor.

It turned out the star actually had prostatitis, an inflammation of the prostate typically caused by an infection. But Jamie spoke of the crippling fears due to his health anxiety, revealing he has had to have therapy for his phobia of being sick.

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He said: "I have terrible health anxiety, I'm a massive hypochondriac. Every day, I wake up and go, 'what's wrong with me today?'

"I had a really bad phobia about being sick, emetophobia it's called, it actually started with that. Then as I got older, that developed into more health things."

Emetophobia is a mental health condition in which you experience an intense fear of vomiting, according to the NHS. Speaking about how he copes with his health fears, Jamie added: "I've just had to manage it, really.

"I had therapy for the phobia, it was that bad, and ever since then the coping mechanisms and tools I gathered in the therapy sessions have really helped me." But he admitted that his health anxiety will never fully go away.

He added: "But I don't think these things ever fully leave you. You just become equipped to be able to deal with it, and that's exactly where I'm at now. I'm far from perfect, but I'm certainly in a much better place than it was 10 years ago."