Emma Stone Opens Up About Her Lifelong Battle with Anxiety

Here’s how the actress wouldn’t let her struggle hold her back from following her dreams.

When you think about the incredible acting career Emma Stone has had, it seems impossible that she ever thought it may not happen. But the actress has revealed that because of her lifelong battle with anxiety, she never thought she would be able to move away from home and all the comforts she knew in order to pursue her Hollywood dreams.

Luckily, Emma found that it was exactly her art and acting that would help her find ways to cope. In fact, while recently visiting “The Late Show” with host Stephen Colbert, Emma revisited a drawing she created in a therapy program as a child.

“I was nine and I was in therapy,” she said about the time she created the artwork. “I was a very, very, very anxious child and I had a lot of panic attacks and I benefited in a big way from therapy. I started at 7. [Acting] and improv helped me so much. I still have anxiety to this day, not [knocks on wood] panic attacks.”

Though she is now sharing that getting involved in acting helped her get through her panic attacks, there was once a point Emma feared that her anxiety would limit her career and the pursuit of her dreams She previously shared she has gone through a lot to get where she is now.

“I truly, as a kid, did not think I would be able to ever move away from home or to be away from people that I had separation anxiety with,” she said. “I’ve been able to manage that with great therapists and great cognitive behavioral tools – meditation and lots of things.”

Through her experience, she has also picked up some words of wisdom that will help any of us going through trying times.

“Life goes in stages, and it has always been something that I’ve lived with and that flares up in big ways at different times in my life,” she shared. “But sometimes when it’s happening, when I’m in a phase of real turmoil or the anxiety is very strong, it feels like the anxiety is never going to end, and it does.”

Here’s a clip of Emma talking about her childhood experiences. (The drawing comes in around 6:23):

And here’s a closer look:

Written by Kristine Hope Kowalski