Amanda Seyfried became open and honest in Allure's November issue about her struggles with mental illness.
E! News published, while casually discussing home renovations, the actress mentions her OCD saying, "I bought the house in 2013, and then I had it redone," Seyfried, 30, says. "I just finished renovating one of the barns for guests. I put in a bathroom and a little kitchenette, but no stove; I want people to eat meals in the house. Also, I always worry about people and how they use stoves. Which is just a controlling thing."
She was too worried that people might accidentally leave the stove on which is related to her obsessive compulsive disorder. Living with anxiety and depression is all too familiar to the actress, who have been dealing with it for some time.
"I'm on Lexapro, and I'll never get off of it," Seyfried says. "I've been on it since I was 19, so 11 years. I'm on the lowest dose. I don't see the point of getting off of it. Whether it's placebo or not, I don't want to risk it. And what are you fighting against? Just the stigma of using a tool?"
"A mental illness is a thing that people cast in a different category [from other illnesses], but I don't think it is. It should be taken as seriously as anything else," the actress added.
"You don't see the mental illness: It's not a mass; it's not a cyst. But it's there. Why do you need to prove it? If you can treat it, you treat it," she tells Allure.
"I had pretty bad health anxiety that came from the OCD and thought I had a tumor in my brain. I had an MRI, and the neurologist referred me to a psychiatrist. As I get older, the compulsive thoughts and fears have diminished a lot. Knowing that a lot of my fears are not reality-based really helps", she adds.
According to National Institute of Mental Health, OCD affects more than two million people in the U.S. alone. Contrary to what people know about OCD, it's not always about germs and organization of things, people who are suffering from this disease have uncontrollable and intrusive thoughts as well as feeling the urge of doing something over and over again, which can affect their life.
In addition, people with OCD fears for their safety, hence repeatedly checking on things such as seeing if the door's locked or if the oven's off.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
