Adele, Taylor Swift, Ryan Reynord..: They all once had anxiety disorders

BY JESSICA ARIEL WENDROFF

AUGUST 4, 2017

Having anxiety can feel like being trapped in an inescapable bubble only you can see. Unfortunately, not everyone takes mental health seriously, because unlike a physical illness, its symptoms can be invisible. However, just because you can’t see anxiety doesn’t mean that its effects aren’t real or damaging. The mental health condition is often characterized by persistent worrying, but can also manifest itself physically with symptoms that include, but are not limited to, trouble sleeping, nausea, and aches. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 40 million Americans over the age of 18 are affected by anxiety.

Because anxiety is so common, it’s important to remember you’re not alone if you’re experiencing it. In fact, you’re in very good company. These 10 celebrities have opened up about their own anxiety, showing just how common it really is.

Emma Stone

Emma Stone has been pretty open about her mental health and talking about her anxiety. The La La Land actress first learned what anxiety was from first-hand experience as a child. In a 2015 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Emma made her private memories with anxiety public.

“The first time I had a panic attack I was sitting in my friend’s house, and I thought the house was burning down,” she said. “I called my mom and she brought me home, and for the next three years it just would not stop. I would ask my mom to tell me exactly how the day was going to be, then ask again 30 seconds later. I just needed to know that no one was going to die and nothing was going to change.”

Ryan Reynolds

The movie star detailed his feelings on anxiety while filming a 2017 Variety interview.

“I never, ever slept. Or I was sleeping at a perfect right angle — just sitting straight, constantly working at the same time,” he explained. “By the time we were in post [production], we’d been to Comic-Con, and people went crazy for it. The expectations were eating me alive.” The 40-year-old thanked his wife, Blake Lively, for helping him through it. “Blake helped me through that. I’m lucky to have her around just to keep me sane.”

Amanda Seyfried

Amanda Seyfried got real about taking medication for her anxiety in a 2016 Allure interview.

“I’m on Lexapro, and I’ll never get off of it,” the Twin Peaks actress revealed. “I’ve been on it since I was 19, so 11 years. I’m on the lowest dose. I don’t see the point of getting off of it. Whether it’s placebo or not, I don’t want to risk it. And what are you fighting against? Just the stigma of using a tool? A mental illness is a thing that people cast in a different category [from other illnesses], but I don’t think it is. It should be taken as seriously as anything else. You don’t see the mental illness: It’s not a mass; it’s not a cyst. But it’s there. Why do you need to prove it? If you can treat it, you treat it.”

Zayn Malik

Zayn has taken the brave path of doing it alone in his singing career, but the road to success hasn’t been an easy one. Regardless of his immediate solo success, the “Pillow Talk” singer has learned the hard way when to put his foot down and mental health first, cancelling concerts when necessary. The former One Direction singer most recently discussed his struggles with mental illness in a Vogue video. “I’m not a very outgoing, social person, like in terms of big groups of people,” Malik said. This isn’t the first time the British singer has spoken out on personal issues. The songwriter gave an in-depth look into the way his mind spirals by sharing an excerpt of his self-titled book with Time in 2016.

“I found it really frustrating that, even now that I was being upfront about what the issue was, some people still found reasons to doubt it. But that’s the industry. It’s an aspect of this job that I have to deal with, and I’m trying to accept it. The thing is, I love performing. I love the buzz. I don’t want to do any other job. That’s why my anxiety is so upsetting and difficult to explain. It’s this thing that swells up and blocks out your rational thought processes. Even when you know you want to do something, know that it will be good for you, that you’ll enjoy it when you’re doing it, the anxiety is telling you a different story. It’s a constant battle within yourself.”

Adele

Even though Adele has the pipes of a goddess, the “Water Under the Bridge” singer is still very human. While meeting role-model Beyoncé, Adele was more than star-struck. “I was about to meet Beyoncé, and I had a full-blown anxiety attack,” she told Rolling Stone in 2011. This incident wasn’t the only time Adele had a hard time coping with her anxiety. “One show in Amsterdam, I was so nervous I escaped out the fire exit,” she added. “I’ve thrown up a couple of times. Once in Brussels, I projectile-vomited on someone. I just gotta bear it.” She’s sounded off on her stage fright-induced anxiety attacks on other occasions, and like Zayn, has even cancelled shows because of it.

“I have anxiety attacks, constant panicking on stage, my heart feels like it’s going to explode because I never feel like I’m going to deliver, ever.”

Ryan Tedder

A relentless Duracell bunny of the music industry, the OneRepublic lead singer is known for writing hit after hit song when he’s not busy on tour. The 37-year-old has penned “Bleeding Love” for Leona Lewis, “Halo” for Beyoncé, “Rumour Has It” for Adele, and “Not Over You” for Gavin DeGraw, just to name a few. The vocalist is usually all smiles and in good spirits, but has, as of late, let people in on an internal battle. Ryan first did so by writing the song “Better” to express his troubles with anxiety, and in a May interview with Access Hollywood, the Christian artist admitted feeling “genuinely unhappy,” and having experienced “crippling anxiety” while on tour.

“I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, not sleeping, on meds, not happy, anxiety on a crippling level and it was triggered from sheer exhaustion,” Ryan said. “I looked at a calendar, realized I had been gone 200 days of 2016 and still had three more weeks of being gone…From my family, my wife, my kids, my friends, basically my life. I also realized that had been the last 10 years. At that moment I wanted to quit, and almost did.”

Now, the voice of OneRepublic has returned to touring, feeling much happier since taking a few much needed months off, and setting emotional boundaries.

Oprah Winfrey

The renowned talk show host ran the Oprah Winfrey Network while filming Lee Daniels’ The Butler when it became clear that the media mogul bit off more than she could chew. During a 2012 interview with Jason Russell, Oprah related to the director by sharing her own symptoms of a nervous breakdown

“In the beginning, it was just sort of speeding and a kind of numbness and going from one thing to the next thing to the next thing. I will tell you when I realized that I thought, ‘All right, if I don’t calm down I’m gonna be in serious trouble.’ I was in the middle of doing voiceovers, you know? And I remember closing my eyes in between each page because looking at the page and the words at the same time was too much stimulation for my brain.”

Jennifer Lawrence

You might have seen Jennifer Lawrence explore mental illness as Tiffany in Silver Linings Playbook, but the highest-paid actress in the world also deals with mental health offscreen. Jennifer has social anxiety and uses acting to soothe her. She told French magazine Madame Figaro in a 2013 interview that her struggle began in school.

“When my mother told me about my childhood, she always told me that there was like a light in me, a spark that inspired me constantly. When I started school, the light went out. It was never known what it was, a kind of social anxiety.”

Fortunately for moviegoers everywhere, once The Hunger Games star found her footing in acting, everything changed. “After I finally found a way [to] open the door to a universe that I understood, that was good for me and made me happy, because I felt capable, whereas before I felt worthless.”

Kristen Stewart

Kristin has kept busy since her days as a vampire’s main squeeze. She hosted SNL for the first time in February, and is now currently filming as Savannah Koop in JT Leroy. The actress was unafraid to call out President Donald Trump for his tweets in February, but this isn’t the first time we’ve seen moxie from the actress. Stewart isn’t at all shy when it comes to living with anxiety. The California native has openly addressed having anxiety on multiple occasions. In 2015, she gave an elaborate interview with Marie Claire.

“Between ages 15 and 20, it was really intense,” Stewart admitted. “I was constantly anxious. I was kind of a control freak. If I didn’t know how something was going to turn out, I would make myself ill or just be locked up or inhibited in a way that was really debilitating,” she stated.

Then in 2016, Stewart reported experiencing other anxiety symptoms, such as stomach aches and panic attacks, in Elle U.K.

Kim Kardashian West

In the traumatic aftermath of her Paris robbery, Kim, 36, now lives with anxiety. In an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the Selfish author enlists the aid of a therapist to help reduce her symptoms.

Like other celebs before her, the reality star has slowed down her life in order to successfully cope and regain a sense of contentment.

“I just want to get past my anxiety and live life…I never had anxiety and I want to take back my life,” she said in an episode.

Source: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/10-celebrities-talk-about-anxiety