Love Island's Montana opens up about her anxiety after the show
Note: This article contains discussion of themes including suicide that some viewers may find upsetting.
Love Island star Montana Brown has opened up about her experiences with anxiety for Mental Health Awareness Week.
In a question and answer video on her YouTube channel, the reality star opened up about how she first started feeling anxious following her stint on the hit ITV2 reality series.
"When I first left Love Island, that's when I started to get anxiety," she said.
"So that was the first time I ever experienced anxiety and stress, really, in those situations is after I left Love Island and I shot to fame... which was obviously fantastic but it does come with downfalls.
A post shared by M O N T A N A B R O W N (@montanarosebrown1) on May 9, 2019 at 11:14am PDT
"My mental health problems now, they're a little bit different. I wouldn't say they were mental health problems, it's just dealing with grief, and the way that I've dealt with that is with a myriad of different things."
Referring to Mike Thalassitis' death, Montana admitted that she felt "angry" towards him at first, but then she started writing out her feelings as if they were letters to him.
"I was getting my anger out on the page and it was very therapeutic for me," she explained. "I felt like it relieved me of some of my anger, which was what I needed."
Montana previously said that Mike had texted her shortly before his passing and she hugely regrets not replying to it.
"I'm kicking myself because he texted me and I didn't actually reply, because I'm really bad on my phone," she said on This Morning in March. "And you overthink everything, like what you do, and I just wish I'd replied."
Love Island is set to return to ITV2 on Monday, June 3. The producers have revealed details of an increased aftercare process for new contestants in the wake of Mike's and Sophie Gradon's death.
We would encourage anyone who identifies with the topics raised in this article to reach out. Organisations who can offer support include Samaritans on 116 123 (www.samaritans.org), and Mind on 0300 123 3393 (www.mind.org.uk). Readers in the US are encouraged to contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 1-800-273-8255 or visit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
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