Amanda Seyfried has obsessive compulsive disorder—and she’s speaking up about it for the first time.
In a new interview with Allure, the Mamma Mia! star opens up how OCD has impacted her life. In the interview, she says that her OCD makes her obsessively worry. She shares a story about having the stove removed from a guest house on her property in Stone Ridge, New York, because she was afraid that someone could start a fire.
“I always worry about people and how they use stoves, which is just a controlling thing,” she says. “You could so easily burn something if you leave the stove on. Or the oven.”
Amanda also says she gets “pretty bad health anxiety” from her OCD and once thought she had a brain tumour. After having an MRI, the neurologist recommended that she see a psychiatrist, which she says helped a lot. “As I get older, the compulsive thoughts and fears have diminished a lot,” the 30-year-old actress says. “Knowing that a lot of my fears are not reality-based really helps.”
She also tells Allure that she’s been taking Lexapro, a drug that can be used to treat anxiety and depression, for 11 years. “I’ll never get off of it,” she says. “I’m on the lowest dose. I don’t see the point of getting off of it. Whether it’s placebo or not, I don’t want to risk it. And what are you fighting against? Just the stigma of using a tool?”
The actress says that she wants people to better understand mental illnesses like OCD in order to normalise them. “A mental illness is a thing that people cast in a different category [from other illnesses], but I don’t think it is,” she says. “It should be taken as seriously as anything else. You don’t see the mental illness: It’s not a mass; it’s not a cyst. But it’s there. Why do you need to prove it? If you can treat it, you treat it.”
Kudos to Amanda for opening up about her mental health.
f you or anyone you know could be at risk of suicide, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. Experiencing symptoms of mental illness? See your doctor, or contact beyondblue (1300 22 4636) or SANE Australia(1800 18 SANE).
Source: Women’s Health
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