Busy Philipps is famous for sharing everything. Except her anxiety.
Busy Philipps, the actor and mega Instagram star who shares exactly what’s on her mind, face, hair or anything else if you’ve seen her posts, once hid something so scary, she kept it from her parents.
Her anxiety.
Philipps, 39, says her anxiety was so fierce she couldn’t sleep or even steal out of bed to tell her parents. The “Freaks and Geeks,” “Cougar Town” and “Vice Principals” actor shared her experience with anxiety as part of the Child Mind Institute’s #MyYoungerSelf campaign.
“I have had anxiety for as long as I can remember, since I was a kid. I used to lie awake in bed at night, and I would have spinning thoughts. It would be really hard for me to get to sleep, and I would be so scared that I wouldn’t even go to my parents’ room. And I didn’t want to tell them what was happening because I thought there was something wrong with me.”
Philipps joined the dozens of celebrities, athletes and social and business influencers who have made videos for the Child Mind Institute, a nonprofit that helps children and young adults with mental health and learning disorders, to talk about depression and anxiety.
Among them: Kristen Bell, James Van Der Beek, Brittany Snow and Clark Gregg.
In her video, Philipps realized something about her anxiety:
“It turns out that there’s nothing wrong with me. Once I was able to start talking about it, it relieved a lot of the anxiety, and I was able to get help — therapy and sometimes medication, which, there’s nothing wrong with that either.”
One oft-repeated message among other celebrities in their videos to their younger selves is not to feel embarrassed or ashamed. It’s a message that Philipps echoed.
The way to learn this is to open up and start talking about your anxiety and that will come with a realization.
“It’s something that a lot of people struggle with. It feels kind of incredible to know that you’re not alone,” she said. “So you’re not alone.”
Philipps has acquired her 1million-and-growing Instagram followers through her self-deprecatory humour, raw honesty and vulnerability. As a future host of her own E! late-night talk show called “Busy Tonight,” she’ll share even more of that with her fans.