Terrifying anxiety cripples me, reveals Crown star Claire
AS the Queen of England in The Crown, she is a picture of steely poise. In real life, however, Claire Foy can be paralysed by selfdoubt.
The actress has revealed she suffers from a crippling anxiety that is so severe it leaves her racked by negative thoughts. In a candid interview, the 34-year-old said her condition affected every aspect of her life and meant she could be terrified of crossing the street.
‘When you have anxiety, you have anxiety about – I don’t know – crossing the road. The thing about it is, it’s not related to anything that would seem logical,’ she said.
‘It’s purely about the feeling in the pit of your stomach and the feeling you can’t, because you’re “this” or you’re “that”. It’s my mind working at a thousand beats a second, and running away with a thought.’
Foy, who is currently starring in the films First Man – which is about the 1969 Moon landing – and The Girl In The Spider’s Web, said the condition developed in her teens but it ‘exploded’ when she became an actress. She said: ‘It was a tool to survive, definitely. To try to hold on to everything. To try to feel safe. If I knew a day was going to be ruined by anxiety, that was good in a way, because it meant I knew what was going to happen.’
The star said she was finding it easier to manage the condition after seeking help from a therapist. She said: ‘It got to a point where everyone I knew said go. I’m glad I did… It has plateaued. It’s still there, but I guess I don’t believe it so much any more... I used to think this was my lot in life, to be anxious. And I would struggle and struggle and struggle with it, and that it would make me quite miserable… but now I am able to disassociate myself from it more.’