EASTENDERS star Luisa Bradshaw White has revealed she was in a psychiatric hospital and ‘nearly didn’t survive’ after leaving the soap.
The actress – who played Tina Carter on the BBC soap – has swapped acting to set up her own dance company in Wendover Woods in Chiltern Hills.
Luisa’s character was brutally killed off by serial killer Gray Atkins after she discovered that he had murdered his wife Chantelle in December 2020.
Now she runs her business where she creates “musical journeys for free form dance and breath work ceremonies,” in the forest which she said has helped her with her “big” emotions.
The former actress took to Instagram to share how she battled with her mental health when she was in showbiz because she wasn’t properly processing her emotions.
“I used to be an actor so I had a place to put those big feelings: but it didn’t feel like where I was supposed to be,” she wrote alongside a make-up free selfie.
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“I also tried to suppress those big feelings and that led to a serious mental illness, psychiatric hospitals and something I nearly didn’t survive.”
Luisa continued by saying she feels she finally has “found my space in the world.”
“I don’t try to hide my big feelings I know they are powerful indicators for how to live my life fully. I know that when I go in deep to the big feelings I experience, with a feeling of curiosity and love, I emerge out the other side with new wisdom with new insights and feeling so much more self love and clarity about who I am.”
Luisa added: “My favourite thing about my life now is that I have found people like me who want to come and dance and breathe to feel all this too.”
Luisa shot to fame in 1988 as Herte in A Friendship in Vienna, before later landing roles in Grange Hill, The Bill and Birds of a Feather.
She first appeared in Holby City on season four as a midwife on the hospital maternity ward called Lisa Fox.
Luisa was a series regular and appeared in the programme from 2001 to 2005.
The star later appeared in BBC medical drama Doctors, before landing her role in EastEnders as Tina Carter.
EastEnders fans were not happy with how Tina was killed off the show and the fact it took almost a year to find where the serial killer had buried her body.
It was revealed that Tina’s corpse had been hidden in the closed down Argee Bhajee restaurant.
How to get help
EVERY 90 minutes in the UK a life is lost to suicide
It doesn’t discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society – from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers.
It’s the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, more deadly than cancer and car crashes.
And men are three times more likely to take their own life than women.
Yet it’s rarely spoken of, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage unless we all stop and take notice, now.
If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support:
