Sheridan Smith: I had five seizures and was rushed to A&E after anti-anxiety medication addiction

Sheridan Smith has discussed her addiction to anti-anxiety medication, revealing the affect stopping the tablets had on her body.

The 39-year-old revealed she “went off the deep end” after she was nominated for her performance in The C Word at the 2016 Bafta Television Awards.

Speaking in a new ITV documentary which details her mental health struggles, West End star Smith explained: “Graham Norton was hosting and made a joke at my expense about me being a drunk…

“I was so humiliated. It’s a room full of your peers, people you want to work with or have worked with.

“That night, for me, was like the final straw before my brain totally went off the deep end.”

She added that she had become addicted to the anti-anxiety medication she had been prescribed, and her decision to stop taking it suddenly had an adverse effect on her body.

“That night I took myself off to a hotel on my own. In my crazy mind, I thought, ‘I’ll do it (stop taking the tablets) myself,’” Smith said.

“I went there and just stopped my tablets. Weirdly, a friend of mine had rung me and she came to the hotel.

“It’s a miracle she did. It’s like someone was looking out for me because what I didn’t realise is that if you stop these tablets abruptly, you seizure.

“I seizured five times and got rushed to A&E and she’s the one who got me breathing again.”

The new documentary, titled Sheridan Smith: Becoming Mum, observes the star through her pregnancy with newborn son Billy.

She welcomed her first child with fiance Jamie Horn after she had an emergency surgery during the nationwide lockdown.

Smith explained that she wanted her new documentary to help other expectant mothers who are fearful for their mental health.

“At the start of my pregnancy, I’d just got myself to a good place and I thought, ‘Please don’t let this be a turning point where things change for me’.”

“That was my biggest worry,” she said.

Sheridan Smith: Becoming Mum airs on Tuesday September 1 at 9pm on ITV.

Additional reporting by PA