Celebrities with anxiety and panic attacks

Helena Bonham Carter – appearing at the London Film Festival to promote her new movie ‘The King’s Speech’ :

“I suffer from stage fright right now. I don’t like making speeches…

“I’m the kind of introvert, mad actor who likes putting on other people’s clothes and pretending to be somebody else.” [Sawf news]

Colin Firth: “I had appalling stage fright the last time I went on stage.

“We’d only had two weeks rehearsal, hadn’t had a proper dress rehearsal, we were at the Donmar [theater], there were no prompters, and I had to open with a two page monologue.

“I locked myself in the toilet before the performance… I just thought, take a deep breath and remember your first line, and I couldn’t.” [From Colin Firth - Colin Firth's 'Appalling' Stage Fright, contactmusic.com 25 October 2010]

Edie Falco says she battled a crippling bout with mental health challenges before achieving stardom in “The Sopranos” …

“There were some horrible years… And real heavy-duty darkness can set in. I had a little bit of a nervous breakdown, I suppose.

“Somebody got me a job at a hardware store and I started having terrible anxiety attacks,” she recalls.

See more of her quotes in post: High Ability, High Sensitivity, High Anxiety.

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Hugh Grant said, “I get these panic attacks. So I have always tried to do everything I possibly can – herbal remedies, chemical remedies.

“Running was the only thing that really helped.

“It calmed me down, so I didn’t have the panic attacks. But at the same time, I found it lowered my sense of humour.

“I lost my edge a bit. So in the end, I stopped running.” [imdb.com]

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Alison Pill

“The only way to deal with nerves is by focusing on whatever you have to do and forgetting about the number of people watching and everything that depends on you. Sometimes, I get so incredibly nervous before a take that I forget lines or I mess them up.

“When that happens, I know that I am not a part of the scene since the character isn’t nervous. It’s a matter of aligning your own feelings with what the scene is about… if the character isn’t uncomfortable then I can’t be.” [From a Message Board on an old website of hers.]

In a July 2010 interview for Venice Magazine, she was asked, Do you get stage fright before a show?

Pill replied, “No. Usually, I just can’t wait. I get annoyed with the audience when they make me wait.” [laughs]

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Italian opera star Cecilia Bartoli says she is still anxious ahead of every performance.

“No, stage fright never stops. One cannot and must not be calm before a performance,” she said. “It helps if you are musically confident and accomplished in terms of technique. But there is always anxiety.”

But Bartoli seemed confident in taking on the challenge of succeeding conductor Riccardo Muti as artistic director of the Whitsun Festival, an annual offshoot of the prestigious Salzburg Festival. [earthtimes.org]

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More artists – a list from The Linden Method site :

You are not alone…

Sometimes it is just nice to know that we are not alone with this condition. Even celebrities suffer from anxiety. Late nights, bad dietary habits, money and work stress, long days and jet lag take their toll on anyone, regardless of age. Anxiety sufferers are getting younger and younger, the condition can strike anyone at any time.

This is a list of famous people who are reported to have suffered from anxiety:

* Nicole Kidman (actress)

* Kim Basinger (actress)

* Delta Burke (actress)

* Donny Osmond (entertainer)

* Winston Churchill

* John Cougar Mellancamp (musician / actor)

* Ann Wilson (Singer – Rock Group ‘Heart’)

* Winona Ryder (actress)

* Marie Osmand (entertainer)

* Cher (singer, actress)

* Beverly Johnson (supermodel)

* Roseanne Barr (comedian / actress)

* Michael Jackson (singer)

* Naomi Judd (singer)

* Susan Powter (tv host)

* Nicholas Cage (actor)

* Sissy Spacek (actress)

* Johnny Depp (actor)

* Sally Field (actress)

* Alanis Morisette (singer)

* Burt Reynolds (actor)

* Courtney Love (singer – actress)

* Naomi Campbell (supermodel)

* David Bowie (singer)

* Carly Simon (singer)

* Aretha Franklin (singer)

* Lani O’Grady (actress)

* Michael English (singer)

* Sir Laurence Olivier (actor)

* Earl Campbell (football player)

* Al Kasha (songwriter)

* Emily Dickinson (poet)

* Marty Ingels (comedian)

* John Madden (sports announcer)

* Leila Kenzle (actress)

* Willard Scott (weatherman)

* Shecky Greene (comedian)

* Olivia Hussey (actress)

* Oprah Winfrey (host – claims she had just one attack)

* Tom Snyder (host)

* John Candy (comedian – actor)

* Sam Shepard (playwright)

* Isaac Asimov (author – educator)

* Charles Schultz (cartoonist)

* Dean Cain (actor)

* Barbra Streisand (singer / actress)

* Anne Tyler (author)

* James Garner (actor)

* Jim Eisenreich (baseball)

* Pete Harnisch (baseball)

* Nikola Tesla (inventor)

* Charlotte Bronte (author)

* Alfred Lord Tennyson (poet)

* Sigmund Freud (psychiatrist)

* John Steinbeck (author)

* W.B. Yeats (poet)

* Sir Isaac Newton (scientist)

* Abraham Lincoln (president)

* Barbara Gordon (filmmaker)

* Robert Burns (poet)

* Edvard Munch (artist)

* John Stuart Mill (philosopher)

* Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal)

* Lucille Ball (actress, singer)

* Jordan and Jonathon Knight (new kids on the block)

* Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics (singer)

Source: The Linden Method

“Developing The Linden Method was the final chapter in my recovery, but to date it has helped 134,035 ex-sufferers to permanently and completely eliminate panic attacks, anxiety attacks, OCD, phobias and all the associated symptoms that had previously dominated and ruled their lives.” Charles Linden