Emma Stone has suffered panic attacks since she was seven.
The 30-year-old actress has revealed she was just seven years old when she had her first experience with anxiety, and has said that whilst it is exhausting for her, she believes she is "lucky" to have the mental illness, as it makes her "high energy".
When her pal Jennifer Lawrence asked her during an interview for Elle magazine if she remembers a time she felt the most anxious, Emma said: "Yeah, when I was seven. That’s when I started having panic attacks, which I’ve talked about pretty extensively. I think your wiring is just kind of what you are. My mom always says that I was born with my nerves outside of my body. But I’m lucky for the anxiety, because it also makes me high-energy."
And when asked if she thinks she was born anxious, or if something happened to make her sensitive, she added: "I think that it’s a combination of all of it."
The ‘La La Land’ star admits acting became an outlet for her sensitivity, as she says she is over-emotional on a "problematic" level.
She said: "I am sensitive on a level that is problematic. I mean, I’ve talked to my therapist about it before, and she’s like, Thank God you found [acting].
"I started acting in youth theatre when I was 11. But it’s weird when it becomes your job. And then there are other parts of it, like sitting here with the tape recorder in between us, that aren’t things that you think about when you’re a kid and it’s just like, ‘This is a safe, great place to feel a lot.’"
When it comes to acting, Emma likes to draw on her own experiences to help her find the right emotions for a scene.
The ‘Easy A’ actress told Jennifer: "I tend to use a lot of stuff that has actually happened in my life, and I pull from feelings that came with certain experiences. Then it at least feels productive to have all these feelings, which is why I started acting in general. And I guess I use my imagination to an extent."
Emma Stone: I had my first panic attack aged seven
