After being the main face of the show, rarely off screen when she was doing the trial and lots of time devoted to the amusing fall-out from her failures, she is slowly losing screen time. It was absolutely no surprise to me she didn't get into the top 2 for the trial. She is no longer the main attraction. If she is determined to win, her aim now should be try to be visible as possible.... but how will she turn it around?

Rosemary is stealing into the 'love of bubbly people vote'
Hugo is naturally argumentive which will keep him in the headlines
Colin is a loveable, cuddly bear
David Haye is arrogant and a joker so he will get his scenes.
Ashley will cut into the 'I'm voting for the pretty girl' block

Firstly, being as visible as possible doesn't mean you're going to win.
She was still one of the most featured people this episode with the recap of the live trial so it's a bit premature to talk about her slowly losing screen time.
I'll be glad to see more of the other celebs. Helen has made enough of an impact already to keep her in through a couple evictions. I think those who've done nothing (Linda) will be the first out.

No, but it will keep you at the front of people's minds.

I think we only saw so much of Helen's live trial again because the producers had to fill in some screen time as they may have had a lot of unusable footage connected with whatever happened to Brian. Helen has been exposed as a fake now and won't get as much attention or votes for anything.

Ironically "brave Helen" is a lot more attractive than "scared Helen", and she might have done really well if she'd just kept it together from the start.

On the contrary, now she has actually completed a task and stopped wearing bikini tops she is falling out of in every situation, I am liking her better. She is pretty harmless.

She was okay last night apart from re-capping of the live trial we hardly saw anything of her.

Will be interesting to see watch the rest of the camp from now on. Loving Ashley and David last night.

I was one of those who believed she'd faked her scaredness from the beginning but I'm not so sure now. Here's why ...


This second part of your post is what makes me think that she wasn't faking. The actress Helen Flanagan knew what the public was expecting from her even before she went in. I think it was even in here on DS weeks before the show started that she'd get selected for the tasks. People had already made up their minds that she was a flighty airhead. If she was astute and clever enough to devise a plan like faking extreme fear only to come around (after several trials) surely she was clever enough to realise that she could 'stuff it to the GBP' by successfully doing the first trial - shattering their preconceptions of her and in the process have them vote for others in subsequent trials.

I think she may have built up in her head that the trials were going to be more terrifying than they were (and was maybe a bit of a 'cowardy custard' to begin with) and maybe she could be accused of 'having no balls' - but I no longer think she was faking it.

Yes exactly. Wasn't it you I was having an argument about this before?!

Im just waiting for the argument where she sticks her oar in and becomes the heroine

I wasn't aware of the fact that Helen suffered from any phobias but she did make it public that she suffers from panic attacks. I'm beginning to wonder if Helen has, in fact, ever had a proper panic attack. She's refused to do trials and, if my memory serves me right, it was down to panic. The very fact that she could even speak when having one of these attacks makes me believe that they most certainly are not real.

I've suffered from these attacks for nearly four decades, thankfully very rarely nowadays, but when one was surfacing I couldn't speak because I couldn't muster up enough breath to do so and, when it was full on, any communication from me was virtually nil. Trying to stay alive took any energy that was still in my body. A true panic attack is nothing to make light of and, even more importantly, not a condition to use as a cop out.

I've yet to see any evidence that Helen has actually ever had a real one and that's why I believe that she's an actress and using her acting skills to try to dupe the public, many who may never have had a full blown panic attack and wouldn't actually know what it felt or looked like and how it can render a person totally helpless.

When she realised that her actions were having a negative effect on the camp she changed her ways, she emerged from her trials in rude health with no evidence whatsoever that they'd caused her any physical or mental damage at all. Oh, how I wish that I was Helen, that I could turn off the trigger that sets me off. She could make herself a fortune by sharing her (non) secret cure.

There were reports last year that she left Corrie due to panic attacks. Presumably she's now got them under control, your point might be valid if she had claimed to have had a panic attack over one of the trials but she hasn't.. She quit the ostrich task because she suddenly got freaked out by being in the dark and she didn't attempt the hamster wheel because she was feeling a bit panicky and freaked out - not the same thing as a full blown panic attack!

I'm more inclined to believe that she's suffered from panic attacks in the past, because that sense of impending panic can linger for a long time and I think that feeling is what stopped her from doing the hamster wheel task (plus her just being generally fed up and throwing a bit of a wobbly!)

I am with you there twinkle, there is no way you get over a panic attack as quickly as helen does.There is a before,during and after with panic attacks. her so called panics as soon as she leaves the situation she does not like.As you say, i wish she could tell us how she over comes her panics so quickly. She could make alot of money.

She hasn't claimed to have had any panic attacks on the show!!!! FFS

BIB, got the panic attacks under control in twelve months? Please!! Lead me to her general practitioner, her specialist, her "anything and anyone who can cure panic attacks" person. It's just not that simple but how I wish that it was.

I'm more inclined to believe that she's had a spot of tachycardia , has been mollycoddled and falsely led to believe that her increased heartbeats are down to a panic attack when this most certainly isn't the case. We all get scared, we all get anxious but, thankfully, the majority don't suffer with a true panic attack because these evil things leave you exhausted, in fear of your life and the most scary things you could ever encounter, other than kidney stones.

Maybe not, but the "terrifying panic attacks" were the reason given for her leaving CS, so you can roll those eyes right back into your head.

I think she'll finish about 5th. Like Jordan, she's dominated the air time, but she's also divided opinion. She tops the poll of 'hate', but she's also quite high up on the poll of 'like'. The way it usually works is that you vote FOR rather than against, so she'll be in the top half.

All these experts on panic attacks and phobias! Firstly, not all fears are full-on phobias; secondly, panic attacks are different for different people and I when I had them, I could speak (jabber nervously) and recovered as soon as my heart rate went back to normal or I got out of the situation e,g got off the train, out of the lift.

Why always think the worst of people? It's a stressful situation, yes I know they signed up for it etc. etc. but until you get there ... And compounded by lack of sleep, separation from loved ones, and irregular meals doing weird things to your blood sugar, most of us would be put a bit off-balance.

It's fine to comment on her behaviour in the jungle, but let's face it you have no idea about her problems outside.
She cited panic attacks and depression as the reason for leaving Corrie. She's also struggled with an eating disorder. These kind of things are linked and as you're not her doctor, what are you basing your belief that she couldn't have got these under control in 12 months?! It's perfectly possible.

Most likely the panic attacks occurred at a time of stress for her which has now passed...
Anyway, Helen herself hasn't brought up her past problems as an excuse for doing badly in trials, it's just that we know a bit about her history so we bring it up ourselves.

IMHO she was faking the whole thing for attention - acting like a baby and being unable to put her own socks and shoes on, can't sleep without Harry Potter music etc etc. Soon realised she was getting really unpopular and set to it and won 12 stars.

Who is she trying to kid - not me. She was crap on CS and I was glad to see the back of her and the character but did a better acting job on this. Once Keith Duffy had pointed out about the pouting I am watching for it all the while and LOL.

What did Keith say about the pouting ?
I refuse to watch the side show due to a certain presenter - whose voice even makes me cringe

Not everyone suffers panic attacks as severely as you describe. I used to have panic attacks in certain situations - nowhere near as extreme as what you describe, but they were most definitely panic attacks.

And yes, it is possible to learn to deal with them.

I'm surprised that someone who has suffered mental disturbances could be so unsympathetic.