“Today I had my first full on panic attack in months. Out of nowhere, and for no reason. That’s just sometimes how anxiety goes.”
Dove Cameron, the star of the Disney Channel film series Descendants, recently took to Twitter to discuss her struggles with anxiety and to offer advice to fans who may be dealing with it as well.
“Do your best to not speak negatively of others, of life, of any given situation,” Cameron tweeted. “And especially, do your best to not speak negatively of yourself. It’s hard at first, but it gets easier. I am not perfect at it, but it does make a difference for my anxiety and my noise in my mind.”
Cameron told her Twitter followers that she “wanted to speak honestly,” and that she has been “doing phenomenally” with her anxiety.
“It’s always there, a little bit, sometimes a lot… but I have gotten more skilled at keeping it quieter, reasoning with myself, breathing… but today I had my first full-on panic attack in months. Out of nowhere, and for no reason. That’s just sometimes how anxiety goes.”
Cameron revealed that after making it through the panic attack, she wanted to share her experience.
“I wanted to tell you this so that you don’t look at me and feel hopeless because I always seem stable,” she tweeted. “I know I can present like that sometimes.”
Cameron continued, “No one is ‘perfect’ and we should not strive to be ‘cured,’ but rather, embrace highs and lows as a fact and centerpiece of being alive. ‘This moment is inevitable…’ There is help, hope, and growth for all of us. But we should never compare our paths to others, but rather, honor, embrace and accept our own path… None of us are OK 100% of the time, and that’s OK.”
A couple of years ago on Twitter, Cameron addressed the importance of speaking up about mental health issues to help break the stigma.
“So many people have anxiety/related things. It needs to be less taboo to talk about it, it helps so much to talk.”
She added that anxiety had “made me that much more disciplined in my thoughts. So it has been a blessing in disguise… It’s not about hiding it, it’s about genuinely embracing, acknowledging and managing it.”
In previous tweets, Cameron recommended the following to combat anxiety: “Time alone, self-reflection, laughter, getting in touch with my body, journaling, therapy, sleep, nature, exercise.”
Cameron also revealed that she has taken up meditation in an effort to to deal with her anxiety and she “100% recommends” it to others dealing with the mental health issue.