Emma Stone, the acclaimed actress known for her role in La La Land, has frequently spoken openly about her struggles with anxiety in various interviews. In 2017, during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, she detailed her experiences with anxiety and panic attacks.
Early Childhood Struggles
Stone's childhood was marked by severe mental health distress. She recalled experiencing her first panic attack at the age of seven: "I was at a friend's house, and all of a sudden I was just sitting in her room, and I had this deep, knowing that the house was on fire, despite all evidence to the contrary."
She began therapy around age eight, as the anxiety became debilitating. "I started taking therapy, I think around age 8, because it was getting really hard for me to leave the house to go to school," she said. "I sort of lived in fear of these panic attacks."
Haunting Experiences
As reported by NPR, the Poor Things actress could vividly recall a haunting anxiety episode when her chest tightened, prompting her to immediately call her mother. Stone shared that over the years, she has managed to overcome the worst of it, though anxiety still lingers. "I still have anxiety to this day but not panic attacks," she told the BBC.
Breakthrough and Separation Anxiety
Stone once believed she would never leave her native Arizona. However, at around age 15, her acting career took off, propelling her to Hollywood heights. A significant challenge was separation anxiety when apart from her mother, fearing something might happen to her. This fear made every separation feel like an ordeal, preventing her from living freely.
Mental Strength and Superpowers
Stone approached her anxiety with mental strength, referring to it as a "superpower." She explained, "Just because we might have a funny thing going on in our amygdala, and our fight-or-flight response is maybe a little bit out of whack in comparison to many people's brain chemistry, it doesn't make it wrong." She added, "It doesn't make it bad. It just means we have these tools to manage. And if you can use it for productive things, if you can use all of those feelings in those synapses."
On The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, she brought a drawing depicting a little Emma and a green monster, which represented her "anxiety."
What is Anxiety?
According to the American Psychological Association, anxiety is an emotion characterized by apprehension and somatic symptoms of tension, where an individual anticipates impending danger, catastrophe, or misfortune. The body mobilizes to meet the perceived threat: muscles tense, breathing quickens, and the heart beats faster. Anxiety is often future-oriented and long-acting, focused on a diffuse threat, while fear is a present-oriented, short-lived response to a specific danger.
