Emma Stone Opens Up About Childhood Anxiety And How Acting Helped Her

The actor said she had her first panic attack when she was only seven years old; she believes her anxiety as a child stemmed from the fear of being separated from her mother.

It takes a lot of strength to talk about mental health issues that are still largely stigmatised around the world. But, many celebrities have put the spotlight on their struggles with depression, anxiety, and such. Among them is actor Emma Stone. The 35-year-old recently revealed that she had sought therapy as a child for suffering from anxiety, a condition that affects both adults and children.

According to a People magazine report, the 'La La Land' star said in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) earlier this week that she started therapy around the age of 8, because "it was getting really hard for [her] to leave the house to go to school". "I sort of lived in fear of these panic attacks," Stone confessed.

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The actor was also quoted as saying that she had her first panic attack when she was only seven years old; she believes her anxiety as a child stemmed from the fear of being separated from her mother. "It is a hard age to be able to reason with yourself, at seven or eight, and tell yourself these things aren't true... It was very hard to convince myself otherwise."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when a child "does not outgrow the fears and worries that are typical in young children, or when there are so many fears and worries that they interfere with school, home, or play activities, the child may be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder". Separation anxiety is common in children, which is basically being "very afraid" when away from parents.

In her interview, Stone -- who started acting at the age of 11 -- said it "provided a way for her to focus on the moment", not worrying about the before and the after. She was quoted as saying that as an actor, "all of [her] big feelings are productive, and presence is required".

It has, in fact, changed the way she thinks of anxiety now.

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"I've told a lot of younger people that struggle with anxiety, that in many ways I see it as kind of a superpower. 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. 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 that are firing for something creative, or something that you're passionate about, or something interesting..." Stone expressed.

She also called anxiety a "rocket fuel", because you "cannot help but get out of bed and do things, do things, do things, because you have got all of this energy within you. And that is really a gift".

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According to the CDC, anxiety may present as fear or worry, but can also make children irritable and angry. "Anxiety symptoms can also include trouble sleeping, as well as physical symptoms like fatigue, headaches, or stomach aches. Some anxious children keep their worries to themselves and, thus, the symptoms can be missed," it noted.