Ryan Reynolds shared some candid details about what his life with anxiety is like. The Deadpool actor explained in an Instagram post that he frequently overschedules to cope with his anxiety, and he hopes that speaking about it publicly will help chip away at the stigma surrounding mental health conditions.
“May is almost over. It’s also Mental Health Awareness Month, which brings me to this,” Reynolds wrote in an Instagram post. “One of the reasons I’m posting this so late is I overschedule myself and important things slip. And one of the reasons I overschedule myself is my lifelong pal, anxiety. I know I’m not alone and more importantly, to all those like me who overschedule, overthink, overwork, over-worry, and over-everything, please know you’re not alone.”
Everyone gets anxious at some point in their life. But the type of clinical anxiety that Reynolds and many others deal with comes with symptoms such as overwhelming and/or long-lasting fears or stress, trouble sleeping, and panic attacks, depending on the specific anxiety disorder. For people with anxiety disorders, those symptoms are typically severe enough to interfere with their relationships, career, or ability to go about their daily life.
In addition to his tendency to overschedule, Reynolds said previously that acting can be a coping mechanism for him—especially when portraying Deadpool. “When the curtain opens, I turn on this knucklehead, and he kind of takes over and goes away again once I walk off set,” he said. His anxiety is often triggered by big public appearances and events, he explained, but staying in character allows him to redirect “the energy of just wanting to throw up.”
Although Reynolds’s post comes near the tail end of Mental Health Awareness Month, he hopes it will help make it easier for others to feel okay talking about their mental health challenges. “We don’t talk enough about mental health and don’t do enough to destigmatize talking about it,” Reynolds wrote. “But, as with this post, better late than never, I hope…”
Related:
- Ryan Reynolds Says He’s ‘Always Had Anxiety’
- This Is the Difference Between Feeling Anxious and Having an Anxiety Disorder
- 11 Physical Symptoms of Anxiety, Because It’s Not All Mental