‘Long Island Medium’ Mental Health Crisis: Theresa Admits ‘Crippling’ 25-Year Battle
March 17 2017, Published 10:17 a.m. ET
Long Island Medium Theresa Caputo may not be scared of ghosts, but she once lived with such “crippling” fear and anxiety, she couldn’t leave her own home.
In her new book, Good Grief: Heal Your Soul, Honor Your Loved Ones, and Learn To Live Again, the TV medium, 50, confesses she suffered in silence her entire life.
“I personally know a lot about fear and how it can roll into full-blown panic and inertia, because it dominated a good chunk of my life for 25 years,” she writes. “During this time, I suffered from what therapists call ‘anticipatory anxiety‘ — in other words, thinking bout future events made me feel anxious and interfered with my ability to function.”
“I never wanted to leave the house or go out with friends, and I was constantly afraid that something bad was going to happen to me. To make things worse, I didn’t know what would trigger a freak-out, feed the fear-driven loop in my head, or make these feelings go away.”
When the mother of two did make plans with pals, she warned them she might have to suddenly leave due to her panic attacks.
“It was a real adventure to have dinner with me back then,” she jokes.
Caputo claims her mental distress was caused by years of denying her ability to speak with the dead. (A practicing Catholic, she initially found her mystical powers terrifying.)
“For me, I came to learn that my overwhelming anxiety was occurring because I was ignoring Sprit energy that was trying to communicate with me, though I didn’t know it at the time,” she explains. “All I knew was that something was affecting me in such a way that I’d become short of breathe, my heart would start racing, and I’d feel my throat close up — and I had no idea why.”
After conquering her panic, Caputo now performs live shows in front of thousands of fans, and, of course, stars on her long-running TLC reality show.
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