Two years ago, Sarahann McGill was a bubbly young woman who hosted karaoke evenings in the Glasgow bar where she worked part-time. Then her mother died unexpectedly of heart failure, aged 49, and McGill’s life began to unravel.

A few months later, after the hair salon she had just opened was robbed, she started to get panic attacks. “I would get pains in my chest and couldn’t breathe. I thought I was having a heart attack and would die, like my mum,” she says.

Then she got a call from a television researcher looking for six people to take part in a series exploring emotional health. In return for participating, McGill would get help from a therapist and other experts. “I didn’t know if I could cope with being on television, but I decided to do it anyway. Things were bad and this was a chance of getting help,” she says.

This week, the first episode of the STV series, Make Me Happier, will be broadcast. The six participants, who have problems such as anxiety, insomnia and low self-esteem, are advised by therapists, fitness instructors and mentors on the show, which is sponsored by the Scottish government’s Healthier Scotland initiative and includes suggestions that could also help viewers.

Scots are prescribed more antidepressant medication than patients elsewhere in the UK. When the SNP came to power, the government pledged to reduce the use of antidepressants by 10% by 2009, but the number of prescriptions has in fact risen from 3.6m in 2006 to 3.9m this year.

According to NHS Scotland, more than £40m is spent on antidepressants every year, with an estimated one in 10 people aged over 15 taking the drugs. Campaigners have warned that Scotland is turning into a “Prozac nation”.

For McGill, 32, the fact that her treatment did not include drugs was part of the attraction. Her brief period on antidepressants did not help and she had yet to see a counsellor.

“I was in a mess,” she says. “My mum’s death was a total shock. I became more frightened about everything.”

When two men in balaclavas robbed her salon — named Murrin, the Gaelic for her mother’s name, Marion — things got worse for McGill. “The panic started when I got home alone,” she says. “When I went to bed I just lay there, my whole body rigid, and I honestly didn’t think I’d make it through the night.”

The next day she went back to work and pretended everything was fine, but the panic attacks became more frequent. On several occasions, she raced to hospital convinced that she had a problem with her heart. “But when I went to hospital, the doctors told me it was muscular and sent me home,” she says.

McGill also saw her GP, who prescribed antidepressants and suggested she join a waiting list to see a counsellor.

The invitation to take part in the show could not have come at a better time. After a few sessions with Barbara Gerber, a psychotherapist at the Priory clinic in Glasgow, McGill began to turn the corner.

“She taught me relaxation techniques, how to breathe deeply and control my panic attacks,” she says.

Gerber also encouraged McGill to write down things that made her upset. McGill, who was angry at the crematorium over a mix-up with her mother’s ashes, wrote a letter expressing her hurt. “I didn’t send it,” she says. “But I felt better after writing it.”

McGill also attended lessons with Sarah-Jane Hunter, a pilates teacher who used exercise to help reduce tension and rebuild her strength.

As the treatment progressed, McGill felt some of her energy return. “I started to feel like the person I was before my mum died,” she said. “I thought I’d lost that forever.”

To test how far she had come, McGill agreed to style models’ hair for the Scottish Wedding Show finale at the SECC, which involved stressful behind-the-scenes preparations. Her success led to an invitation to style hair for some of the musicians at the Mobos in Glasgow last month.

“A year ago I would have flapped and probably run away, but I actually had a good time,” she says.

Kirsten Cameron, the producer of the series, says McGill’s improvement shows that people suffering from stress can be helped by the right therapies. McGill agrees. “It’s great to feel in control again,” she says. “I’m back to my old self.”

Make Me Happier is on STV on Tuesday at 7.30pm

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