Anxiety is the most prevalent mental health disorder in the world, and can be found in wide range of age groups, from children to senior citizens. Generalized anxiety disorder signs and symptoms include restlessness, muscle tension, insomnia, and people having a family history of the illness have a higher risk of experiencing it. Though it is well known that this mental illness is not uncommon, few people know just how many popular celebrities suffer from it.

“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.”

—Charles Spurgeon

These are the celebrities who have been outspoken about how they live and manage their anxiety.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is a talk show host and an actress, most popular for The Oprah Winfrey Show. The chairwoman of The Oprah Winfrey Network and Harpo Productions, Winfrey was diagnosed with anxiety disorder as a child, and she has been open about her disease, sharing her experience with fans.

“The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power. Facing the truth really will set you free.

Before you agree to do anything that might add even the smallest amount of stress to your life, ask yourself: What is my truest intention? Give yourself time to let a yes resound within you. When it’s right, I guarantee that your entire body will feel it.

Oprah Winfrey

Adele

Adele is a famous name, known for her hit songs and successful albums, including ‘9’ and ‘25’. Even as a songwriter and pop singer, Adele has shared that she gets nervous when performing on stage and while at social gatherings. She’s stated that she feels vulnerable when she performs on stage, sometimes having panic attacks. Adele has also said many times that this makes touring very difficult for her.

“I have insecurities of course, but I don’t hang out with anyone who points them out to me.”

“Sometimes I just feel it’s only me Who can’t stand the reflection that they see I wish I could live a little more Look up to the sky, not just the floor”

“My life is full of drama, and I don’t have time to worry about something as petty as what I look like. I like eating fine foods and drinking nice wine.”

Adele

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson is an actress and a singer. She is best known for her roles in the movies ‘The Avengers’, ‘Lost In Translation’, and ‘The Nanny Diaries’. Despite her calm and confident demeanor, Johansson has mentioned her experiences with anxiety and how it affects her while on the red carpet.

I’m not anxious to starve myself. For me, it’s not at all sexy to be ultra-thin.

Scarlett Johansson

Stephen Colbert

The host of the comedy show, The Colbert Report and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, has said that he was affected by anxiety during his early years of adulthood. He’s discussed how it caused him to have panic attacks just before his performances, but that they would resolve themselves once he was performing. He’s also mentioned that it affected him once more during a period of nervous breakdown after his marriage.

I had a bit of a nervous breakdown after I got married — kind of panic attacks,” he shared. “My wife would go off to work and she’d come home — because I worked at night — and I’d be walking around the couch. And she’s like, ‘How was your day?’ And I’d say, ‘You’re looking at it.’ Just tight circles around the couch.

Xanax was just lovely. You know, for a while. And then I realized that the gears were still smoking. I just couldn’t hear them anymore. But I could feel them, I could feel the gearbox heating up and smoke pouring out of me, but I was no longer walking around a couch

I was left onstage with a show that we had created together. I did a year of that show. And I was in such a weird panic that I would never create anything new again

I would go to the show, and I would curl up in a ball on the couch backstage and I would wait to hear my cue lines. Then I would uncurl and go onstage and I’d feel fine. Which occurred to me at the time: Like, ‘Oh, you feel fine when you’re out here.’ And then as soon as I got offstage, I’d just crumble into a ball again. Nobody ever asked me what was wrong!” he recalled, laughing. “It went on for months.

Stephen Colbert

Kourtney Kardashian

Kourtney Kardashian is a member of the Kardashian family, who are best known for their show, Keeping up with the Kardashians. She has been open about her experiences with anxiety, saying that it comes in the shape of nausea and it makes tough for her to eat. She said that exercise and avoiding certain triggering foods help her to cope with the condition.

“I do think that turning 40, like, it almost makes you analyze, like, where you’re at in your life… It’s just giving me anxiety,” she told Khloe.

“I just always wish that I had more time. But I feel like I want to cry,” she admitted through tears. “Just ’cause it, like, gives me anxiety and I don’t know why…. ’cause then I’m like, I have so much and I should just be so happy.”

“But you’re not happy?” Khloe asked, after offering her older sister a hug.

“I mean I am, but then sometimes I’m just, like, it makes you really, like, analyze just, like, where you’re at,” Kourtney responded. “And then I’m like sometimes I’m like, ‘What am I doing?'”

“I’m just living life. But then sometimes… I’ll just do stupid s**t to distract, like, really thinking about stuff that is maybe more important,” she continued. “I don’t know. But then half of me’s like, ‘Live your life! Have fun!'”

“And if that makes you happy, you know that’s completely OK for your life,” Khloe assured Kourtney. “What if you enjoy the life that you have right now? If you’re happy that’s all that should matter for any of us. But I really don’t think your soul is happy. I think you feel incomplete somewhere. You’re scared.”

Kourtney Kardashian

Kristen Bell

Kristen Bell is an American actress known for her role in ‘Couples Retreat’, as well as ‘Frozen’ and ‘The Good Place’. She had been a victim of anxiety since her childhood and had been on medical treatment since. She has been open about her condition, and encourages her fans and people following her to seek help for their mental health issues rather than being ashamed about them.

I still feel funny when I talk about it because even I suffer from the stigma of shame of like, ‘Should I be talking about this?’ But my reality is that the minute I started, which was at the encouragement of my husband, I immediately felt so much more responsible and I recognized—and hindsight is 20/20—that for so many years I had presented this bubbly human being who didn’t seem to have any problems, that wasn’t the whole truth and I could have been helping people by saying, ‘Look, I suffer from it. We all suffer from it. If you have these problems, there are answers out there. There are hotlines, there are therapists, there are psychologists, there are support systems, there are family members, there are books, there are shows on mental health. You don’t have to feel isolated. So yes, I feel an enormous sense of pride when I’m able to share about my anxiety and depression.

Kristen Bell

Johnny Depp

The famous lead actor of ‘The Pirates of The Caribbean’ and ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ has been a victim of anxiety for a long time. Though he has keep his struggles more private, he has stated in an interview that he gets anxious and panics when he faces people, an indication of social anxiety.

 I was as low as I believe I could have gotten..the next step [for me] was, ‘You’re going to arrive somewhere with you eyes open and you’re going to leave there with your eyes closed. I couldn’t take the pain every day.

I poured myself vodka in the morning and started writing until the tears filled my eyes and I couldn’t see the page anymore.

I kept trying to figure out what I’d done to deserve this. I’d tried being kind to everyone. The truth is most important to me. And all this still happened.

Johnny Depp

Busy Philipps

The famous star for her role in ‘Freaks and Geeks’ and ‘Cougar Town’ also suffers from anxiety. Busy has said before that she often responds to anxiety and stress by picking at her skin. She said that it’s a struggle to counter the disease, and has been open about her disorder and her methods of coping with it, like meditation.

Kristen Stewart

Stewart is an American actress known for her role as Bella Swan in ‘Twilight Saga’, as well as others in ‘Into The Wild’ and ‘Snow White and the Huntsmen’. The first American actress to get a ‘Cesar Award’, she, too, suffers from anxiety and panic attacks, which she said were intense during her teenage years. She has shared that these episodes would usually stem from thoughts about the future, and that she would relieve them by keeping busy and getting more involved.

Kim Kardashian West

Kin Kardashian was also a part of the reality TV show, Keeping up with the Kardashians. This star has said that she deals with her symptoms of anxiety by breathing deeply and exercising. She also mentions in the show that her anxiety can often be overwhelming and that she wishes she could get rid of it.

Kate Moss

Moss is an businesswoman and British model for Calvin Klein, who has been suffering from anxiety since she was a teenager. She reported having nervous breakdown just after her modeling ad, saying that she felt traumatized due to her shoot for the brand.

Missy Elliott

Missy Elliott is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. Famous for her song ‘Lose Control’ and ‘Work It’, she has also won Grammy Award for Best Female Rap Solo Performance. She shared in an interview that she would get anxious before facing a crowd, sometimes having panic attacks (i.e. in 2015 before her performance at the Super Bowl).

Ellie Goulding

Ellie Goulding is an English singer and a songwriter, most popular for her song ‘Love me like you do’. She received the ‘Brit Award for Rising Star’ in 2010. She has said that her anxiety makes her lose self-confidence, and that she fights it through kickboxing.

Emma Stone

Emma Stone is an American actress that got recognized on a wider scale through her performance in the super hero film ‘The Amazing Spider Man 1 & 2’. She won the Academy Award for best actress in 2016 ‘La La Land’. Emma suffered panic attacks in her childhood with underlying anxiety, which she was able to cope up through her participation in local theater plays.

Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus is an American songwriter, singer, and actress. She became famous for her lead role in ‘Hannah Montana’ show on Disney Channel. She was awarded the MTV Movie Award for Best Song ‘The Climb’ in 2009. Cyrus went through her anxiety phase in the past due to her bad skin, but she was able to overcome from this situation by concentrating more on her performances.

Sarah Silverman

Sarah Silverman is an American writer, stand-up comedian, singer, actress, and producer. She won an Emmy Award for her musical collaboration with Matt Damon in 2008. She is the host of the series, ‘I Love You America’, and a writer at ‘Saturday Night Live’. She has been dealing with depression and anxiety for years, and described the feeling to be overwhelming and dominating. Her panic attacks were followed by depression.

Lena Dunham

Lena Dunham is an American writer, actress, producer, and director. She is famous for her HBO television series ‘Girls’, which led her to become the first woman to win Directors Guild of America Award and two Golden Globe Awards. During her childhood she was identified to have obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) for which she was put on antidepressants.

Demi Lovato

Demi Lovato is an American song writer, singer, and actress. She became popular with her role as the lead in the Disney Channel television film ‘Camp Rock’. Apart from numerous awards, she holds one of the Guinness world records for being the youngest judge in a show. Demi Lovato started to have anxiety at a very young age. She usually dealt with her condition through painting, exercising, writing songs, and meditation.

Rachel Bloom

Bloom is a Golden Globe Award winner for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy, and a Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her lead role in series ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’. On one occasion, nervous for a presentation at next day of work, Bloom to had a sleepless night, which led her to anxiety. In order to get out of this phase, Bloom began meditation, which was relatively successful.

Dan Harris

Dan Harris is an American journalist who works for ABC news, and is famous for being an anchor in ABC’s programs, ‘Nightline’ and ‘Good Morning America’. During one of his morning shows in 2004, Dan Harris suffered a panic attack while on a TV show, a sign of depression and anxiety. Dan started doing meditation which eventually turned out to be beneficial for controlling his illness. He later wrote a book named10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works-a True Story.

LeAnn Rimes

Leann Rimes is an author, song writer, singer and an actress. She a country music star at the age of thirteen, and is known for her song “Blue”. In 1997, Leann won her first Grammy Award for Best New Artist. However, negative events in her personal life (i.e. her divorce, getting remarried, etc.) exacerbated Rimes’ anxiety and led her to join a rehabilitation center.

Kim Basinger

Kim Basinger is an American singer, model, and actress. Kim came into limelight for her performance in the movie ‘Never Say Never’. In 1997, she won a Golden Globe Award and others for best supporting actress in the movie “LA Confidential”. Kim struggles with agoraphobia, social anxiety, and panic disorder. For a period in her life, she relied on medication on a daily basis, but later found other ways to enjoy life and face her fears.

Charlie Beljan

A professional American golfer, Charlie Beljan is a victim of anxiety disorder. During the PGA tour, he had several panic attacks while playing and even went to hospital after completing a game. While he was in hospital, it was discovered that his electrolyte levels were very deranged; as a result, Beljan has gone to nutritional therapy in order to balance out his vitals.  

Joey Votto

Joey Votto is a professional Canadian baseball player. He has received a number of carrier awards and honors, including being seven-time winner of Tip O’Neill Award, six-time MLB All-Star, and two-time Lou Marsh Trophy winne. He has also been named Canada’s athlete of the year. However, he started to have depression and anxiety issues right after the sudden death of his father, for which Votto went to therapy. It was the support from his doctors, teammates, and family members that helped him fight his depression.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was an American lawyer and statesman, as well as the 16^th President of United States Of America. Abraham suffered from generalized anxiety disorder, beginning from his childhood and continuing throughout his life, up until his assassination. Lincoln learned to deal with his mental disorders through his work, dedicating his life to his family and serving the people of his country.