Actress Kristen Bell has revealed that she has suffered from depression and anxiety from a young age.
The 35-year-old actress also admitted that her bubbly personality stems from a desperation for people to like her.
Speaking on the talk show Off Camera with Sam Jones, Bell said: “I’m extremely co-dependent. I shatter a little bit when I think people don’t like me. That’s part of why I lead with kindness and I compensate by being very bubbly all the time because it really hurts my feelings when I know I’m not liked.”
“And I know that’s not very healthy and I fight it all the time,” she added.
The Frozen actress has two daughters, three-year-old Lincoln and one-year-old Delta, with husband Dax Shepard.
Her mental health issues run in her family and she was advised early on by her mother, a nurse, that she could be susceptible to a serotonin imbalance.
“[My mum’s] a nurse and she had the wherewithal to recognise that in herself when she was feeling it and when I was 18 said, ‘If you start to feel like you are twisting things around you, and you feel like there is no sunlight around you, and you are paralysed with fear, this is what it is and here’s how you can help yourself’”.
While she says there is still a stigma attached to mental illness, Bell insists she isn’t ashamed to ask for help if she needs it.
“If you do decide to go on a prescription to help yourself, understand that the world wants to shame you for that, but in the medical community, you would never deny a diabetic his insulin. Ever,” Bell added.
