Kristen Bell on Living with Depression and Anxiety

I have to know how my brain works

in order to catch it from doing bad things.

'Cause the brain is really tricky

and it will tell you things that aren't true.

And so knowing that,

I would remember a negative experience

more than I'd remember a positive,

I would really make it my mission to go,

Okay, but the positive experiences

with that person were equal.

I'm gonna choose to let that negative experience go.

[soft music]

It's hard into words, honestly,

and it feels different at different times.

When my anxiety is high,

it feels like an absolute inability to make decisions.

Like, I would rather not do something

than decide what to do.

And it's almost paralyzing which is odd

'cause it seems like it's simple.

Do you wanna go on a walk

or sit on the couch and watch TV?

And I'm like, I can't figure that out.

I don't have the brain power.

It feels like decision fatigue.

And then depression is different.

My version of it feels very restricted.

Like, if you're trying to put on like a latex glove

that's way too small for your hand.

Also, it sort of coincides with this feeling

of not being excited about anything,

which again, on a day when you feel great or even normal

you can get excited about things.

Like you're like, Oh, I'm gonna have pizza today

or I'm gonna see a friend today.

All of the fun things about life.

And when I'm having depression,

it's like none of those things

are exciting or seem worth it.

So there's this real disconnect because I know logically

that should be a feeling that induces some happiness,

but it's like, my depression

will not let me recognize those feelings.

At 40, I don't like believe anything

should be taboo anymore.

Like I talked to my kids about sex

and yes, they're very young

but they wanted to know how they got here,

and we talked about it,

and they were grossed out and left the room,

and that's fine.

But I think that anything that's taboo

and hard to talk about

should be some of the first priorities

you should be talking about

with the support systems in your life.

I wish that I had known as a person in the public eye

to talk about it publicly at an earlier date.

I had been acting and doing publicity for a while

and I was at the last stretch

of two movies of a press tour.

And I had done all these interviews

and I was lying in bed about to do Sam Jones,

which is a long form interview.

Like it's like a 45 minute to an hour sit down.

So, you better be prepared to talk.

And I said to my husband,

God I have nothing to talk about.

I feel exhausted.

Like I've said every story about my life.

And he said, Why don't you talk about your struggle

with anxiety and depression?

And it like was a huge light bulb.

I was like, I've never done that.

I was experiencing the same thing that everyone was

which is like, Well, just don't talk about that.

And then I just felt so inauthentic and irresponsible

to have been presenting this like bubbly happy person,

which is someone that I cultivate and I nurture

and I try really hard to exist as,

and I just wasn't being honest with the people,

like the girls who may look up to me.

And so I was like, Okay, I'm just gonna talk about it.

And so I don't even think that Sam knew

but during that interview, I was like,

actually, for a period of my life and periods

and often and sometimes just on a random Wednesday,

I feel this way.

And then we started to get more in depth

and I found myself really happy to be admitting all of it.

And the response I got from that interview

was like astounding to me.

Like so many people saying, I've felt that way too.

Thank you for saying it out loud.

You gave me the courage to say it out loud.

Which I did practically nothing

other than do what I should do

which is be honest and authentic.

It was a huge turning point in my life.

I just felt a huge sense of responsibility.

And so I kept talking about it and I talk about it a lot.

And here we are.

I started noticing like a feeling of being disconnected

when I was probably 18 or 19.

I moved out of Detroit and to New York

when I just turned 18

I was like two weeks into being 18.

And I was so excited.

It was all I wanted to do.

I was going to NYU,

I was studying musical theater,

I was living in this beautiful

like melting pot cultural city

and seeing Broadway shows each night.

It was wonderful.

I just felt like if I wrote my life down on paper

I had so many opportunities, so much privilege

so much access to happiness,

and yet my feelings were not that.

As an 18 year old, living on her own in New York City,

I should be like, Yes.

Like it should be so exciting, but it wasn't.

I felt like I was sort of followed

by this weird dark cloud

that just didn't allow me to see

all the happiness around me.

And I was lucky that I felt in my bones

that that wasn't how I should...

I hate to use the word should,

but should be feeling or how I could be feeling, I guess.

And I was lucky enough that my mom had sat me down

and had a conversation with me

and she said, Hey, just a quick heads up.

I experienced these feelings sometimes,

your grandmother experienced these feelings sometimes.

She's a nurse and so she recognized

that there could be a hereditary component

to a serotonin imbalance.

And she said, If you start to feel any of these things

just know there are a variety of ways

that you can reach out to people or try to fix it.

And you don't sort of have to live like that.

It's such a hard thing to about

like, I don't like that there's any sort of stigma to it,

but I get it.

It's a weird thing to talk about

'cause it's not an affliction that you can see.

It's like a hard thing to, I guess diagnose

and also acknowledge

and a lot of families or support systems

or anyone in your life,

they don't know how to talk about it.

Especially if they aren't themselves feeling it.

I think I had an upper hand

because my mom had explained it to me

in a very medical way early on.

And I was like, Oh, okay.

Sort of armed me with the information

about what could happen and maybe it never will,

but if it did there's access to help.

I knew that there were all of these ways,

like talking to a friend,

finding a therapist,

talking to a psychiatrist or a psychologist,

and just knowing that changed everything for me.

Even if you're not experiencing any mental health issues,

I would hope that you would walk through life

being open and ready to be a shoulder if someone needs you.

Because the reality is, we're not all born the same.

Some of us are born with a ton of confidence

and then some are born really timid.

And I just feel like

maybe this is just my maternal instincts talking,

but I just don't want anyone to feel

like they don't have a support system.

So if we collectively as a society,

like self care, this whole idea

should also include caring about each other.

It has to obviously be on the person

to identify the feeling and say, I need help.

But then I think it has to be on the people around them

that love them to say,

Okay, let me see if I can support you.

Even if that's just checking in one once in a while.