“I’m like ‘bubbles, glitter!’ No, it’s not always that way. I am someone who takes a medication for her anxiety and depression.”
Kristen Bell is in a good place. Her new movie Frozen 2 debuted at number one arround the world, bringing in an estimated $350 million globally, according to The Hollywood Reporter. During a press tour for the hit movie, Bell opened up about mental health.
In a Sunday Sitdown interview with Willie Geist, Bell got candid about living with mental illness.
Living With Depression In The Public Eye
“The last few years you’ve been very open about anxiety and depression and things you struggle with that so many people in this world suffer with and I think they think there’s some shame in it,” Geist said to the Veronica Mars actress, “But if they see Kristen Bell, who projects — even sitting right here — she’s happy, she’s smart, she’s bubbly.”
Bell was quick to add that while she may appear happy all the time, it’s not always the case.
“I’m like ‘bubbles, glitter!’ No, it’s not always that way. I am someone who takes a medication for her anxiety and depression. I am someone who has to check myself and sometimes — if I’m feeling really low — make a checklist of good and bad things in my life to see if it’s my mental state or if we really have a problem,” Bell shared. “And me talking about that actually came from — ugh, I hate to give him credit for everything, it’s so annoying that he’s so right about everything.”
Encouragement From Dax
Bell’s husband actor/podcaster Dax Shepard is famously open about his past drug use and subsequent sobriety.
“He was like ‘Why don’t you talk about your anxiety and depression?’ and I had never thought about that before. And I immediately felt incredibly irresponsible,” she said.
Bell then began publicly discussing her struggles with depression and anxiety during interviews.
Bell went in-depth about her mental health in a 2016 interview with Sam Jones for an episode of Off Air With Sam Jones.
“I’m extremely co-dependent. I shatter a little bit when I think people don’t like me,” Bell explained. “That’s part of why I lead with kindness and I compensate by being very bubbly all the time because it really hurts my feelings when I know I’m not liked. And I know that’s not very healthy and I fight it all the time.”
She also revealed some advice that her mother gave her when she was experiencing mental health issues at age 18.
“[My mom’s] a nurse and she had the wherewithal to recognize that in herself when she was feeling it and when I was 18 said, ‘If you start to feel like you are twisting things around you, and you feel like there is no sunlight around you, and you are paralyzed with fear, this is what it is and here’s how you can help yourself,” Bell said.
