We’ve seen Kristen Bell charm us as kind and bubbly characters in films like Frozen (voicing Anna), and playing the mostly beautiful and confident heart-breaker Sarah Marshall in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. She’s a ray of sunshine on talk shows and even has a secret weakness for adorable sloths! But Kristen Bell has opened up in a recent interview with Off Camera about her fight with depression.
“I’m extremely co-dependent. I shatter a little bit when I think people don’t like me. 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.” Said Bell.
She highlighted just how much these feelings changed her personality and who she was during her younger years.
“I was always nervous that someone would reject me, so I changed my interests based on what my friends liked, and I really didn’t realise this until my 30s.”
She went on to explain how she came to terms with what was really going on.
“I struggled a lot with anxiety and depression. My mom sat me down when I was 18 and said ‘there is a serotonin imbalance in our family line’. My grandmother was one of the first people they tested electro-shock therapy on!”
Bell is extremely grateful for her mother’s role in recognising the symptoms in herself, and helping her figure out when to get help. She stresses the importance of others finding help as well, and takes the stance that we need to break the stigma surrounding mental health.
“It’s a very interesting double-standard that I don’t often have the ability to talk about, but I certainly feel no shame about.”
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