This Is Why Emma Stone Believes That Anxiety Is “A Very Selfish Condition To Have”

Emma previously revealed that she started going to therapy for anxiety at just 7 years old.

By
Stephanie Soteriou
by Stephanie Soteriou

BuzzFeed Staff

Hollywood actor Emma Stone has always been incredibly open about the way she has battled anxiety since childhood.

Emma Stone smiling at the BAFTA Film Awards wearing a large-sleeved orange dress and necklace
Future Publishing / Future Publishing via Getty Images

During a 2015 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Emma recalled her first-ever panic attack and detailed how anxiety manifested itself in her day-to-day life.


"The first time I had a panic attack, I was sitting in my friend's house, and I thought the house was burning down,” she shared at the time. “I called my mom and she brought me home, and for the next three years, it just would not stop.


“I would ask my mom to tell me exactly how the day was going to be, then ask again 30 seconds later,” Emma continued. “I just needed to know that no one was going to die and nothing was going to change.”

And two years later, during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Emma was confronted with a self-portrait that she’d drawn in therapy at 9 years old.

Emma Stone's drawing
CBS

In the picture, Emma is standing next to a small, green monster, which represents her anxiety. Above the drawing, she’d written, “I’m bigger than my anxiety!”


Speaking to Stephen Colbert about the artwork, Emma explained, “I was a very, very anxious child, and I had a lot of panic attacks. I benefited in a big way from therapy.”


She went on to say that she started therapy when she was 7 years old, and that, combined with doing improvisation and acting, proved to be really helpful for her as a child.


But despite finding coping mechanisms to help her live with anxiety, Emma clarified that she still struggles with it “to this day.”

And Emma reflected on this in a new interview with Variety, where she claimed that anxiety is a “selfish condition.”

Emma Stone in a black jacket with an oversized white lapel, smiling at the camera
Michael Buckner / Penske Media via Getty Images

The star was joined by director Yorgos Lanthimos as they discussed their movie Poor Things, and the publication noted that the character Emma plays in the film has no inhibitions or any concern for what other people think of her.

Emma Stone in Poor Things
Searchlight Pictures / Via youtube.com

The star was then asked, “I wonder if there’s something about that character that you thought, Wouldn’t it be super fantastic to just have no shame or not be concerned about what others are thinking?”


“I think that’s why I was so crazy about her,” Emma admitted in response. “It’s the idea of not living with that self-judgment or shame, as you say, of the social contracts that you make as a child growing up.”

“Part of the nature of anxiety is that you’re always watching yourself,” she continued. “In some ways — this is horrible to say — it’s a very selfish condition to have.”

Emma Stone poses in a black dress with gold accents at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Chelsea Guglielmino / WireImage

Emma then clarified, “Not to insult other people with anxiety — I still have it — but it’s because you’re thinking about yourself a lot. You’re thinking about, What’s going to happen to me? What have I said? What have I done?”


Emma is far from the only celebrity to have opened up about living with anxiety, with Sydney Sweeney, Selena Gomez, and Jennifer Lawrence just some of the other stars to have spoken out in recent years.

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