Cecelia Ahern has opened up about overcoming anxiety and battling panic attacks.
The hugely successful author explained that while her life was not tough in most ways, she very much struggled with her mental health.
“I do hate talking about it, but it’s so hard to talk about what I do otherwise.
“I have not had a difficult, traumatic life. But it was a difficult thing for me to overcome – that anxiety, panic attack phase.”
“I let it take over,” she said.
“I let it rule me. I thought this thing was bigger than me. I probably didn’t have that many panic attacks, but what happens is the fear of them takes over. Your world becomes so much smaller.”
The Roar writer revealed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy helped her to cope.
“Because it’s a series of thoughts that are leading up to this build up of panic. If you can recognise the moment, you start to think like that, you can change it,” she told The Independent.
Though her severe anxiety led her to drop out of her drop out of her MA in film at 21, it also led her to begin writing her first novel writing P.S. I Love You in just three months.
As a teenager, Cecelia was involved in performance arts, acting and singing.
While those activities often require energy and confidence, Cecelia’s friends labelled her ‘anxiety’.
“I used to hang out with dancers all the time. And dancers are wild and fun and energetic. Up on the tables doing high kicks when you’re out in clubs. I was surrounded by this and found it so much fun. And yet the nickname one of my friends had for me was ‘Insecurity’. Because I was always questioning; this isn’t real. Why is no one looking me in the eye when they talk to me? Even though I was part of that world, I was waiting for the realness to begin. So I was ‘Insecurity’.”
The star added that dancing was a ‘release’ for her at that time.