Emma Stone’s childhood anxiety
Emma Stone was so anxious as a child that she was "convinced" her house was burning down.
The ‘Birdman’ star has been open about her battle with the condition in the past and has continued to share just some of the struggles she went through as a young girl.
She said: "My brain, naturally zooming 30 steps ahead to the worst-case scenario. When I was about seven, I was convinced the house was burning down. I could sense it. Not a hallucination, just a tightening in my chest, feeling I couldn’t breathe, like the world was going to end. There were some flare-ups like that, but my anxiety was constant.
"I would ask my mom a hundred times how the day was gonna lay out. What time was she gonna drop me off? Where was she gonna be? What would happen at lunch? Feeling nauseous. At a certain point, I couldn’t go to friends’ houses anymore – I could barely get out the door to school."
And the 28-year-old actress says doing improv and acting has helped somewhat in reducing her anxious feelings.
She added to the new issue of Rolling Stone magazine: "I wrote this book called I Am Bigger Than My Anxiety that I still have: I drew a little green monster on my shoulder that speaks to me in my ear and tells me all these things that aren’t true. And every time I listen to it, it grows bigger. If I listen to it enough, it crushes me.
"But if I turn my head and keep doing what I’m doing – let it speak to me, but don’t give it the credit it needs – then it shrinks down and fades away. I started acting at this youth theatre, doing improv and sketch comedy. You have to be present in improv, and that’s the antithesis of anxiety."
