Actress Emma Stone has often spoken candidly about her personal mental health struggles. Back in 2017, she revealed that she was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder at the age of 7. “I had a lot of panic attacks,” she told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show.
Now, Stone has opened up once again, this time talking about how she has been caring for her mental wellbeing during the coronavirus crisis.
In a new video for Child Mind Institute’s #WeThriveInside campaign – which is aimed at helping kids and young adults cope with anxiety during the health crisis – Stone shares some of her tips for taking care of mental health whilst isolating. It’s not the first time Stone has teamed up with Child Mind Institute. In fact, she’s a board member for the institute.
In the video, which you can watch below, Stone reveals that her first strategy for coping with anxiety is getting stuck into a good book. She says she’s been using the time to discover new authors.
Another thing that Stone says she has been doing during isolation is meditating. “I found meditation is very helpful for my anxiety disorder,” Stone says. “Just sitting, ten, twenty minutes a day and repeating a mantra works for me, but you can just count your breaths.”
“Another thing I’ve been doing is dancing,” Stone enthuses. “All around my house, blasting music and just getting it out. Any exercise at all really seems to help me but dance is my favourite and I just get very silly. It seems to work for me!”
“The thing, something I really like to do when I’m struggling with anxiety is a brain dump,” Stone says. The actress says she writes down anything she’s worried about, usually before bed. “I don’t think about it, I don’t read it back.”
