The culture of silence that surrounds mental illness can make it difficult to open up about your experiences to the people you love. As stiffling as that silence can be, there a lot of people that understand exactly what you’re going through, from the mental health community here at The Mighty to your favorite actors, musicians and athletes.
Approximately 18% of adults in the U.S. live with an anxiety disorder, including generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, panic disorder, phobias, selective mutism and separation anxiety.
Whether you live with social anxiety, agoraphobia or panic attacks, knowing you’re not the only person who experiences mental health challenges can make things feel a bit more manageable. Knowing how reassuring community can be, the following 17 celebrities have spoken out about their anxiety to educate the public and help others.
1. Emma Stone
Actor Emma Stone struggled with “massive anxiety” from a very young age. In an interview with Glamour, she recalled her first panic attack, which struck the summer before second grade. “It was really, really terrifying and overwhelming,” Stone said.
Stone had a playdate with a friend when she became convinced her friend’s house would burn down, killing them both. “There was nothing in me that didn’t think we weren’t going to die,” she said.
The house was not on fire and Stone walked away safe that day. However, knowing she was safe did nothing to abate the terror of that moment. Stone said she could feel the world closing in on her:
I couldn’t go to friends’ houses, I had deep separation anxiety from my mom… I was so paranoid about everything. We truly thought I wasn’t going to be able to move out of the house and move away ever.
Fortunately, Stone learned how to manage her generalized anxiety disorder through therapy. “‘I’m bigger than my anxiety,’” her younger self wrote.
2. Mindy Kaling
You may know Mindy Kaling as the bubbly personality behind “Late Night,” “The Office” and “The Mindy Kaling Project.” What you may not know is beneath Kaling’s seemingly effortless onscreen banter lies social anxiety. “People may be surprised to hear this, but I do think I have a little social anxiety,” Kaling told Glamour.
Speaking about the Met Gala, she confided that had the event space not been a museum “where there’s so much to take in,” she might have needed to take a Valium to get through the night. “Oh, small talk is my greatest fear,” Kaling said. “My greatest fear is that the person I’m talking to is dying to get out of the conversation, and they have to lie and say they have to go to the bathroom or get a drink.”
It can be hard for Kaling to be involved in a job where she’s expected to constantly “be really funny and sell the show, while looking beautiful and like I don’t care.” But her social anxiety hasn’t stopped her from making her mark. When she’s off the air and away from the crowds, Kaling surrounds herself with a small group of close friends who make her feel valued — people she knows would never try to “escape [the] conversation.”
3. Stephen Colbert
During an interview with Rolling Stone, Stephen Colbert was asked to recall an audition video from his early years in comedy. In it, Colbert holds his baby close and says, “I don’t know how we’re going to feed her… Why am I an actor? My brothers are lawyers! They own cars! Their kids have their own cars!” It’s a joke, but the comedian’s face seems to seize in sudden desperation. As the video progresses, it feels less and less like a character he’s brought forth and more like a piece of himself he is struggling to hold inside.
That moment of panic may be due to Colbert’s history of anxiety. The comedian worked at night and would spend the day walking circles around his couch. He dealt with a steady volley of panic attacks, and would “curl up in a ball on a couch backstage,” uncurl himself when he heard his cue, and “just crumble into a ball again” as soon as he left. For a time, Xanax offered him relief, but he soon realized that it wouldn’t be a long-term solution for him:
I realized that the gears were still smoking. I just couldn’t hear them anymore. But I could feel them, I could feel the gearbox heating up and smoke pouring out of me, but I was no longer walking around a couch.
Acting provided some relief. During his worst days, Colbert felt alive and most like himself while onstage. Eventually, he was able to find relief by pouring himself into his work. “I wake up the next morning, I’m perfectly fine, to the point where my body’s still humming,” he said.
While anti-anxiety medication did not help Colbert in the long run, everyone is different, and for some, medication is the best option.
4. Selena Gomez
After years of living with lupus and the kidney transplant that followed, actor and singer Selena Gomez realized her mental health was suffering. “I was depressed, anxious,” Gomez told Vogue. “I started to have panic attacks right before getting on-stage, or right after leaving the stage.”
In 2016, Gomez canceled the last concerts of her Revival tour and checked herself into a treatment facility. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve done, but it was the best thing I’ve done,” Gomez said.
Though the experience helped her, Gomez’s struggles with anxiety and depression were not over. In 2018, she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital twice; prior to her second treatment, she had been hospitalized two times for low white-blood-cell counts related to lupus.
Gomez knows mental illness will be with her for the rest of her life. “There won’t be a day when I’m like, “Here I am in a pretty dress—I won!” she told Harper’s Bazaar. But that’s not stopping her from having hope for the future. “I want to make sure I’m healthy. If that’s good, everything else will fall into place.”
5. Zayn Malik
In 2016, Zayn Malik, best known for his work with One Direction, revealed he had to cancel several concerts due to his anxiety. “Mentally, the anxiety had won,” he wrote in his autobiography “Zayn,” according to TIME. “Physically, I knew I couldn’t function. I would have to pull out.”
Malik found the anxiety he had around his performances “upsetting and difficult to explain.” He said:
Even when you know you want to do something, know that it will be good for you, that you’ll enjoy it while you’re doing it, the anxiety is telling you something different. It’s a constant battle with yourself.
Now he speaks out to let fans know “anxiety is nothing to be ashamed of.”
6. Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence’s mother knew that there was something special about her from the time she was a little girl. “She told me that there was like a light in me, a spark that inspired me constantly,” the actress told French magazine Madame Figaro (translated by HuffPost). But when Lawrence went to school in the morning, the spark vanished. “The light went out,” Lawrence said. “We never knew what it was, a kind of social anxiety.”
Lawrence dreaded recess and field trips, and parties “really stressed me out,” she told Vogue. She tried therapy, but nothing seemed to work. “I felt worthless,” Lawrence said.
Lawrence begged her mother to let her go to an audition in New York, and she grudgingly agreed. Onstage, Lawrence came to life again. “I finally found a way, open the door to a universe that I understood, that was good for me and made me happy.” She’s been acting ever since.
7. Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart, best known for her role as Bella in the “Twilight” movies, lived with anxiety for years. “I went through so much stress and periods of strife,” she told ELLE.
Stewart suffered panic attacks and felt an ache in her stomach all the time. She struggled with the feeling that she could not control what happened to her. “I was a control freak and I couldn’t anticipate what was going to happen,” Stewart said. “I’d be like, ‘Maybe I’m going to get sick’… it’s kind of remarkable.”
Stewart’s anxiety was at its worst between ages 15 and 20, she told Marie Claire. While those years were difficult, she doesn’t regret any of it. “I’ve come out the other end not hardened but strong,” she said.
8. Suga
Suga, a singer in K-pop band BTS, lives with social anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In his song, “The Last,” he describes a day he wishes he could erase: “The day I confronted myself / When I hid inside the bathroom / Because I was scared of people.”
He has lived with social phobia since he was 18 years old, and has visited the psychiatric ward multiple times for his mental illness. Though his mental illness makes him feel “anguish,” he strives to turn his struggles into a message of hope. After the death of fellow K-pop star Jonghun, he told Billboard:
I really want to say that everyone in the world is lonely and everyone is sad, and if we know that everyone is suffering and lonely, I hope we can create an environment where we can ask for help, and say things are hard when they’re hard, and say that we miss someone when we miss them.
9. Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande has been very vocal about her struggles with mental illness. Given her success, Grande said she almost feels guilty for having anxiety. “I feel like the luckiest, most blessed girl in the world,” she said, according to Rolling Stone. “I almost feel guilty that I have it… it’s just in your head and it’s crazy how powerful it is.”
In her song “Breathin,’” Grande drives home how consuming anxiety can be. “Some days, things just take too much of my energy / I look up and the whole room’s spinning,” she sings. “I get so overcomplicate, people tell me to medicate.”
Grande’s story is a powerful reminder that anxiety doesn’t discriminate. “No matter how good things are, it can totally change everything,” she said. No matter where you are in life, your feelings are valid. If you’re struggling, don’t hesitate to reach out and get help.
10. Chris Bosh
Life was just as it should be until NBA player Chris Bosh woke up one morning trembling. “I’m just nervous all day, and I’m saying to myself, ‘What’s going on? What’s wrong with me?’” Bosh told ESPN.
A sports psychologist taught Bosh relaxation techniques, but all they did was help Bosh sleep. And as the months wore on, his stress grew worse. After a team switch, online trolls chipped away at Bosh little by little.
Finally, after a major loss to the underdog Mavericks, Bosh reached his breaking point. “I put my life into this,” he said of it later. The tears started rolling down his cheeks before he could duck into the locker room. Social media was his enemy once again — he was derided for being “soft.” “I expressed my feelings, and they made fun of me for that… I just couldn’t win,” Bosh said.
In sharing his story, Bosh is squaring up against a new challenger — the stigma that prevents athletes from being open about their mental health. “It’s an epidemic in our league,” John Lucas, assistant coach for the Rockets, told ESPN. But with every athlete that comes forward, these barriers become easier to overcome.
11. Lady Gaga
Last February, Lady Gaga won a Grammy for her song “Shallow” from “A Star is Born” alongside co-star Bradley Cooper. When Lady Gaga took the podium, she expressed her pride at having worked on a movie that tackled mental health issues head-on. “If you’re hurting,” she said, “try to find that bravery within yourself to go deep and take somebody up in your head with you.”
Lady Gaga has always been a vocal advocate for those living with mental illness. This may be in part because she herself has “suffered through depression and anxiety [her] entire life… every single day,” according to Billboard.
Responding to the stories she’d hear “watching [her] fans grow up… 11- to 17- year-olds in tumultuous times,” she established the Born This Way Foundation, which sets out to comfort underprivileged teens, many of whom deal with depression and anxiety.
“As I began to care for them and to see myself in them, I felt I had to do something that would remind kids they’re not alone,” she said.
12. Gina Rodriguez
Gina Rodriguez, best known for her leading role in “Jane the Virgin,” has been living with anxiety since the show was in its second season. She had her first panic attack at a sushi restaurant. “All of a sudden, I thought I was going to die, and people are taking pictures,” Rodriguez told Cosmopolitan. “It was horrendous.”
It wasn’t until the show’s fifth season that Rodriguez finally summoned the courage to say, “‘I can’t.’” Her anxiety became overwhelming, and the show stopped production so that she could focus on her mental health.
Now, Gina Rodriguez shares her experiences with anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts for the sake of all the girls who look up to her. “It has to be a part of the conversations I have with these young girls,” she said. “I can’t just tell them to go out and make their dreams come true and then to ignore everything else.”
13. John Green
John Green, best-selling author of “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Turtles All the Way Down,” has struggled with anxiety and OCD since he was a teenager. “I had a hard time in high school,” he told CBS. “I had a lot of self-destructive impulses and I felt scared all the time.”
Following the success of “The Fault in Our Stars,” Green found himself in a creative rut and grappled seriously with the idea that he might never write again. The prospect unnerved him. Buying into the “old romantic lie” that medication stifles creativity, Green rolled the dice and went off his anti-anxiety pills.
“The consequences were really dire, unfortunately,” Green said.
In an essay for Medium, he wrote, “I [couldn’t] even read off a menu. I [felt] useless… clinging to a self that at its core [was] no longer mine.”
Green went back on his medications and eventually recovered enough to write his latest work, “Turtles All the Way Down.” It’s about a girl named Aza Holmes who has severe anxiety and OCD. She is often at the mercy of her own thoughts, but ultimately, her mental illness doesn’t get in the way of her happiness.
14. Aparna Nancherla
Comedian Aparna Nancherla of “Corporate,” “BoJack Horseman” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” was diagnosed with anxiety and depression in college. She also struggles with social phobia. “The general vibe in my body at all times is like a Michael Bay movie,” she shared on “The Late Late Show with James Corden.” “It’s just like, a lot of explosions and grimacing into the distance.”
Living with anxiety has been difficult for Nancherla. In an interview with Vulture, she shared that as someone with mental health issues, just showing up is often a “feat” in and of itself. In her view, the fraught political climate and stressors of modern life can be a toxic cocktail for anxious people.
Nancherla hopes that by making people laugh at anxiety and depression, she can also help them to speak more freely about mental health.
“It’s weird that anxiety is finally on message,” Nancherla said. “If you’re an anxious person, this is what we trained for. This is our Olympics. It’s like all those nights awake. It’s showtime! All the scenarios at once.”
15. Khalid
Khalid, who sings in Logic’s suicide prevention song “1-800-273-8255,” shared his experience with social anxiety in a series of tweets in December 2018.
“Was thinking, it’s like, I want to make new friends but… it’s HARD,” he wrote, according to the Independent. “All the pressure in my chest, all the overthinking, etc.”
The singer said being social was easier when he was younger and not constantly in the public eye. “Making friends used to be so easy and so now I’m like… just let me go home,” he said.
Khalid also tweeted about his mental health in 2017. “I’m not feeling the best rn and my anxiety is super bad, love u guys,” he wrote, adding, “i just wanna let you know that if you struggle with any illness, I feel you. It gets better.”
16. Kevin Love
NBA player Kevin Love had a panic attack in the middle of a game against the Hawks. In an essay for Players’ Tribune, he wrote, “I felt my heart racing faster than usual. Then I was having trouble catching my breath… everything was spinning, like my brain was trying to climb out of my head.”
It was Love’s first panic attack, but he had been privately struggling with anxiety and depression for years. As a child, he would silently lock himself in his room for weeks and shut the blinds. His anxiety persisted into adulthood.
For years, Love refused to seek help until his mental illness literally brought him to the ground. For Love, it was hard to overcome the barriers that prevent men from speaking openly about mental health.
Growing up, you figure out really quickly how a boy is supposed to act. You learn what it takes to ‘be a man.’ It’s like a playbook: Be strong. Don’t talk about your feelings. Get through it on your own.
After his panic attack, Love went into therapy, and it ended up being “the most important thing” he’d done.
Now, he is vocal about his experience with mental illness. By talking about it, he hopes others will open up and get the help they need. “If you’re reading this and having a hard time, I want to remind you that you’re not weird or different for sharing what you’re going through,” he wrote.
17. Mardy Fish
In 2012, Mardy Fish was squaring up to face Roger Federer in what might have been the most important match of his life. And then, much to everyone’s surprise, he withdrew from the match. Fish was struggling with anxiety at the time. He had panic attacks regularly and had moments when he couldn’t leave his home.
Fish now manages his anxiety through medication, small goals and a strong support system, according to USA Today. “With my anxiety, I essentially need to be around someone at all times,” he shared. “When I’d sleep, I had to be with my wife. She’s been an angel.”
While mental illness carries a lot of stigma in the sports world, Fish realized his anxiety was not something to be ashamed of. “It’s OK to not be OK,” Fish said. “To show weakness, we’re told in sports, is to deserve shame. But showing weakness, addressing your mental health, is strength.”
If you struggle with anxiety, you are not alone. There is an entire community of people on The Mighty who live with anxiety and are here for you. Join our online anxiety support groups and get and give support to others who know what you are going through.