8 Quotes On Anxiety From Successful Women

If there’s one thing that helps coping with anxiety, that’s talking. It helps when you know someone else is going through similar dark feelings. It makes getting through to the other side a reality you can properly envision. Here we gather the words of eight internationally successful women who haven’t been afraid to tackle the topic of anxiety and may give you some strength for when your axis is spinning.

?I ask myself that a lot, and I think because of this mass of information coming at young people, plus the way they talk to each other online and how vulnerable they are at that age. It just has to make people anxious. How could it not? It’s such a barrage of information coming at them every which way.?

Anna Wintour on young people and anxiety, New York Magazine, 2015

“I would have anxiety attacks. I’d get hot flashes, feel like I was about to pass up or throw up. It would happen a lot before shows, and I’d have to cancel. Then the anxiety started coming from anxiety. I would be with my friends, thinking, I should be having so much fun. You get in this hole that seems like you’re never going to be able to get out of.”

Miley Cyrus on how being Hannah Montana affected her mental health, Marie Claire, September 2015

?I think I was really scared of that for a long time. And if something was really challenging, I thought that I was just going to fall on my face and embarrass myself. I’m just less scared of that now; of failing.?

Emma Stone has suffered from panic attacks since she was 8-years-old. Diane Keaton interviewed her for Interview magazine about how taking a role in Cabaret on Broadway helped her confront her anxiety.

?I have a lot of anxiety that I’ve been struggling with my whole life. So I have been working through it. I’m terrified, but this is exactly what I wanted.?

Amanda Seyfried talked to Vogue about starting to see a therapist.

Promised myself I would not let exercise be the first thing to go by the wayside when I got busy with Girls Season 5 and here is why: it has helped with my anxiety in ways I never dreamed possible. To those struggling with anxiety, OCD, depression: I know it’s mad annoying when people tell you to exercise, and it took me about 16 medicated years to listen. I’m glad I did. It ain’t about the ass, it’s about the brain. Thank you @tracyandersonmethod for showing me the light (and @bandierfit is where I bought my Florida mom inspired workout look.) #notsponsored #stillmedicated

A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Apr 11, 2015 at 4:47pm PDT

“Promised myself I would not let exercise be the first thing to go by the wayside when I got busy with Girls Season 5 and here is why: it has helped with my anxiety in ways I never dreamed possible. To those struggling with anxiety, OCD, depression: I know it’s mad annoying when people tell you to exercise, and it took me about 16 medicated years to listen. I’m glad I did. It ain’t about the ass, it’s about the brain.”

In an Instagram post, Girls creator and actress Lena Dunham opened up about her long struggle with mental health issues and how exercise was helping her through it.

?I had a nervous breakdown when I was 17 or 18, when I had to go and work with Marky Mark and Herb Ritts. It didn’t feel like me at all. I felt really bad about straddling this buff guy. I didn’t like it. I couldn’t get out of bed for two weeks. I thought I was going to die. I went to the doctor, and he said, ?I’ll give you some Valium,? and Francesca Sorrenti, thank God, said, ?You’re not taking that.? It was just anxiety. Nobody takes care of you mentally. There’s a massive pressure to do what you have to do. I was really little, and I was going to work with Steven Meisel. It was just really weird?a stretch limo coming to pick you up from work. I didn’t like it. But it was work, and I had to do it.?

Kate Moss in Vanity Fair? talking about the 1992 Calvin Klein campaign with Mark Wahlberg that launched her international career.

“Fame will have you be completely blissed out and peaceful and happy and connected and connected to God and connected to everything? I was still left with anxiety and depression and humanity and yearning and fear and disconnection, and my relationships were still in slight shambles, and I realised that not much had changed. If it had changed, it really just amplified what was already there. So if there were insecurities, it just blasted them out of the water.”

Singer Alanis Morissette talking to OWN about how her successful 18-month worldwide tour when she was 21-years-old triggered anxiety issues.