Reality TV personality Louise Thompson has given an update on her mental health after she suffered life-threatening complications during the birth of her first child.
In a post to Instagram on Saturday 15 January, the Made in Chelsea star said she has cried “about 20 times” in the last week due to PTSD and is constantly dealing with anxious thoughts.
Thompson welcomed her first child, Leo-Hunter, with fiancé Ryan Libbey in November 2021. She later revealed that she had spent an extended period of time in hospital due to “various serious complications” during labour.
The 31-year-old has not disclosed the details of her illness but told followers that she had “danced with death”.
Detailing the toll of her illness on her mental wellbeing, Thompson said she is struggling with anxiety and has “60,000” thoughts a day.
“If I can try and get 30,001 of them to be non-anxious thoughts then I am sort of winning. Honestly, I’ve never known anxiety like it. It feels inexplicable. But it’s not, and I’m starting to make sense of it,” she said.
“Unfortunately, this week hasn’t been as easy as last week, but like any ‘transformation’ I know it won’t be linear, instead my road to recovery will take the form of a jagged line.”
Sharing a list of positive moments from the past week, Thompson said her time in hospital had left her with a fear of dying.
“This week I managed to talk myself out of the ‘I’m going to die’ mentality a few times without medical help. Having more awareness of what is going on in my head massively helps to calm me down,” she said.
“I also tell myself that I can review my physical symptoms in 24 hours which is a good habit to practice because by the time the 24-hour period is up I’ll have survived.”
Additionally, she said she has stopped some of her anxious behaviours, such as frequently taking her temperature, blood pressure and heart rate.
Alongside the update, Thompson shared two photographs from the past week. In one, she wears a fur-lined beige coat, woolly hat and scarf as she poses in front of a flower display with baby Leo’s pram. Another is of Libbey at a restaurant during a family outing.
Earlier this month, Thompson’s brother and Made in Chelsea co-star, Sam, said “nearly losing” his sister was “one of the toughest things” he has been through.
“To see all the pain she has suffered, and all the setbacks she has faced, and to see her still smiling at the end of it just shows how incredible of a woman she is,” Sam wrote on Instagram under a picture of him and Louise hugging.
He added: “The hardest situations teach the biggest lessons, and I learnt to never take any day for granted ever again.”
