WHEN the already slim Janet Roach started losing weight unexpectedly late last year, fearing the worst she booked a visit to her doctor. And the diagnosis was one she didn’t see coming.
The Real Housewives of Melbourne star was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a condition that started when her son Jake Zogoolas, 27, suffered burns to over 70 per cent of his body in an accident four years ago.
A form of anxiety disorder, PTSD is a high risk for those who have survived traumatic experiences such as war, natural disasters, severe accidents and assault.
“PTSD is usually brought on by a fear of losing your life, or a fear of losing someone very close to you’s life,” explained Roach, 57, who spoke to News Corp exclusively ahead of tonight’s episode in which she will reveal her condition.
“You start to think ‘the world is a really dangerous place’ and it really affects you.”
Immediately after Jake’s accident Roach said she went into survival mode to look after him. But it was in the following months and years that her life spun out of control as the condition took hold.
First she fixed every little thing around the house terrified that if she didn’t the roof would cave in. That then led to obsessively listening to survival podcasts in order to prepare herself for any dangerous occasion.
“I was struggling all the time to stop bad things from happening and that can take up a lot of time and energy,” said Roach.
At the height of her illness, Roach said she was not only glued to the show Doomsday Prep, but she had started building a farm compound in case the world came to an end.
“It was insanity,” she said. “You think that worrying about the world coming to an end is a natural thing and everybody should be worried about it. You don’t realise you’ve gone a little bit too far.”
Luckily for Roach, a combination of medication and therapy has helped get her life back on a more even keel.
And now she’s determined to help other parents who find themselves in a similar situation.
Having started The Roach Foundation to assist burns patients in the aftermath of Jake’s accident, Roach has now added treatments for their families to the program.
“Something like close to 40 per cent of parents who have a child who is burnt to over 35 per cent of their bodies — and Jake was burnt 70 per cent — will develop PTSD,” she said.
“This rocked my world for a few years and I think more people need to know. This happened to me, you can beat it and you can get better. I’m not hiding it and it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
Real Housewives of Melbourne airs Sunday, 8.30pm on Arena
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