"I thought I was having a heart attack. I was thinking my life’s over" - Luke Humphries recalls debilitating effects of anxiety and panic attacks

For Luke Humphries, life is good right now. Although he may have lost his world champion's crown, 'Cool Hand Luke' sits atop the PDC Order of Merit, with nearly £2 million earned in prize money over the last two years and an ever-growing trophy cabinet to show off for his efforts. Things haven't always come so easily for the 29-year-old though.

For many years during the earlier portion of his career, Humphries struggled to turn his undoubted talent into big results, with a key reason for this being his battle with anxiety and panic attacks. “The first time it happened to me I was in a darts exhibition, just before I was professional. Everything was fine, I was playing Phil Taylor. I beat him that night. Maybe I was a bit nervous in the game. I never had these sort of anxious feelings before," Humphries explains on the Jaackmate podcast. “I went to the hotel and woke up a few hours later, my heartbeat racing. You know it was going really fast."

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"I’d never like touched my chest or heart before in my life. I touched it and it felt out of rhythm. It put me in this panic. I couldn’t sleep again through the night," Humphries continues. “Two days later it happened again. I had to go in an ambulance because I felt really faint and all this type of stuff. They told me my blood pressure is quite high and your heart rate rhythm is fine but it’s quite fast and that was when it all started. That’s when I had a year’s worth of panicking all the time. Every time my heart went I thought I was having a heart attack. I was thinking my life’s over."

Comparing the Humphries of then to the Humphries of now, one striking difference stands out. His incredibly impressive weight loss, having dropped over four stone in weight over the course of the Covid Pandemic. According to the former world champion, this weight loss, alongside Cognitive Behaviour Therapy helped get his darting career back on track.

“It sort of went into a massive spiral. But it never happened in darts. Then it creeped into darts. I got into a winning moment against James Wade. I think I was 5-2 up against him. Then all of a sudden the amount of anxiety and panic that came over me was insane," he concludes. “I just couldn’t wait to get off the stage. Then I went and seen someone like CBT, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. We talked about where the root of it come from and where did it maybe arise from.cIt probably came from years of me being overweight maybe. That had an effect on my confidence levels. That’s why I used to feel anxious. I think I was overweight in those moments. This is where it was all stemming from I think.”

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