Sander Lantinga experienced a six-day panic attack due to a cancellation from Nick & Simon. “They didn’t come along, so they asked us. Then I started hyperventilating.”
Almost all celebrities are familiar with it: panic attacks. At least, judging by how many of them talk about it in the media. Sander Lantinga now tells his story in detail in the podcast 30 Minutes Raw. He ended up in a burnout in 2012 after filming the TV program De Zomer Voorbij.
Pass out
Sander says he has had ‘a hefty four-year burnout’. “I think that I had actually been in a preliminary stage for three quarters of a year, but I ignored all signals. And one day, it just didn’t work anymore. Then I walked on Hoog Catharijne and then I thought: hey, I think I’m going to faint now. It started moving.”
He continues: “Then I ran outside too. Well, then it worked again. I had that two or three more times and then came the most bizarre summer of my life. So that was 2012 with Lowlands, Klusjesmannen, Try Before You Die, 3FM festivals…”
63 days long
It was much too busy, Sander explains. “Simply 63 days non-stop in a row, also working Saturdays and Sundays and also evenings… Anyway, it had to be fun, so I thought it was fun. And then I noticed that I started to like it less and less. Then came those hyperventilation or panic attacks, whatever you want to call it.”
Nick & Simon provided the straw that broke the camel’s back. “We were going to do De Zomer Voorbij for ten days, because Nick & Simon were no longer coming, so they asked Coen and me. And day five, then we walked into Montpellier. And then it really didn’t work anymore.”
Nick & Simon
Nick & Simon’s cancellation was the nail in the coffin for Sander. “I then had a panic attack or a hyperventilation attack and there was no end to it at that moment. I thought: this is the most a-relaxed feeling I’ve ever really… All senses are at 110 percent. Your skin irritates, you are short of breath. You can no longer think clearly.”
He continues: “It’s just fear. The realization that you have nowhere to go makes it even worse. And the realization that you think: it will come back soon, makes it even worse. And then you get fear of the fear. And the moment you realize that, then the end is missing. Well, so then I actually had a non-stop panic attack for six days.”
TV career
Did that stress return last year when his TV career failed? Was he angry about the removal of Four Is Too Much? “No not at all. Far from. No. Then it is also a bit of Alice in Wonderland and I find it funny to make more.”
He continues: “Sometimes something doesn’t work out and then many more don’t work after me and I also know that it’s not my fault. Then the program is called ‘Four is too much’, it is aired after two episodes and then I am the first to make the joke: ‘So the title refers to the number of episodes!’”
30 Minutes Raw
The podcast 30 Minutes Raw: