OHMYGOSSIP — Gemma Collins was afraid to tell her parents about self-harming as a teen.
The 41-year-old reality TV star – who will share her story in the upcoming Channel 4 documentary ‘Gemma Collins: Self Harm And Me’ – admitted she was terrified to open up about her issues because she feared she would be “locked in a mental asylum” for the rest of her life.
Gemma told the Sunday Mirror newspaper: “Pressure would build up and that was the way that I would deal with it. I felt relief when I self-harmed. It was a coping mechanism for me if I felt stressed.
“But I just couldn’t talk about it. When you do it for the first time you don’t know why but you hope ‘I never do that again’ and you hope those feelings never come back that make me want to do it.
“I hid it so well. I didn’t do it every day or every week – it was every couple of months.
“When I was growing up you didn’t talk about your problems or aired your dirty laundry in public.
“So when I started self-harming I couldn’t tell anyone because I was thinking I’m going to get locked up, not going to see my family or friends and I’m going to be in a mental asylum my whole life.”
Speaking previously about the documentary, Lee Murray, Channel 4’s Commissioning Editor, said: “Gemma Collins has taken the brave decision to open up about her own experience with self-harm.
“As an instantly recognisable and relatable figure we applaud her courage in revealing her own struggles, and hope this film and her insight will spark vitally important conversations around young people and self-harm”.
The mental health charity Mind added: “Our research at Mind has also shown that when people in the public eye speak about their mental health, it encourages others to do the same – as many as one in five people have spoken to a loved one as a direct result of seeing a celebrity speak out.
“This demonstrates how vital it is that people in the public eye continue to speak honestly about their mental health experiences, including coping mechanisms like self-harm.
“Mind is working with Channel 4 to ensure the issues covered are handled sensitively and portrayed accurately.
“We hope that this storyline will help to build a greater understanding of why some young people use self-harm as a way to deal with poor mental health, and that it will encourage viewers who are struggling to get the support they need.”

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