McFly’s Danny Jones has opened up about his terrifying health battle, revealing that it even felt like he was even ‘dying on occasions’. The musician, who’s part of this year’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here camp, dealt with anxiety for many years, which triggered various little-known physical symptoms.
“I experienced claustrophobia, coming out in cold sweats, feeling a band tightening around my chest and worrying I was having a heart attack,” the 38-year-old said in a recent interview with the Belfast Telegraph. “It’s so scary and I’ve felt like I was dying on occasions.”
The NHS explains that anxiety is a general feeling of ‘unease’, with its intensity often varying depending on the situation and individual. Anxiety in its most severe form, giving rise to ‘an intense rush of mental and physical symptoms’, is known as panic.
Like Danny, many people also experience hot flushes, sweating, chest pains and a fear of dying. Feeling faint, choking sensations, dizziness, dry mouth and tingling fingers are among numerous other symptoms too.
Such attacks last between five and 20 minutes, though they have the potential to persist for up to an hour. However, the NHS adds: “Although panic attacks are frightening, they’re not dangerous. An attack will not cause you any physical harm, and it’s unlikely you’ll be admitted to hospital if you have one.”
Beyond this, Danny explained that he’s also struggled with claustrophobia – an intense, irrational fear of enclosed spaces – in addition to uncontrollable ‘dark thoughts’. Determined to conquer these issues, he turned to therapists, read books, listened to podcasts, exercised more and taught himself breathing techniques.
Now, anxiety is no longer a daily issue, as Danny claimed that his last attack was more than 10 years ago. “Admitting to having anxiety was the first big step and bit by bit, I put myself back together,” he summarised.
Danny’s terrifying experience also echoes that of reality TV star Jamie Laing, who recently spoke out about his own anxiety battle, highlighting the significance of World Mental Health Day (October 10). The 35-year-old, who left Made in Chelsea in 2021, shared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain that he suffered his first panic attack 14 years ago, after years of silent struggle.
Convinced he was having a heart attack, Jamie rushed himself to hospital, but doctors instead revealed a dramatically different diagnosis. Speaking with the TV show’s presenters, he explained: “I took myself to hospital they said ‘you’re having a panic attack don’t worry go home’, I went home and that was the day that my life changed. I had anxiety that I didn’t know what it was, didn’t understand it, never spoke out about it.”
When asked why Jamie ‘never spoke out’ about his symptoms, he confessed he once felt ‘ashamed’ because he didn’t understand anxiety and ‘just wanted it to go’. The star continued: “It was there for many years until I spoke to a really great friend of mine who was best man at my wedding, a guy called Toby.
“I finally phoned him up and I got very emotional on the phone and I said ‘Toby, something’s wrong with me’, and I was scared [about] what he was going to say. And he said: ‘Don’t worry Jamie, we’ll go through it together.’ And it was this echo back which was incredible and I suddenly realised that all these years that I’d been holding it in, why hadn’t I spoken out about it?”