Did Elizabeth Olsen nearly quit acting? (Photo Credit – Instagram)
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Elizabeth Olsen opened up about her past mental health battles, revealing how they almost led her to quit acting. In an interview with The Guardian, the actress connected deeply with her character Christina from the 2023 Netflix film His Three Daughters, who finds solace through breathing exercises and meditation. Reflecting on her struggles, Olsen shared, “I’ve gone through phases of it,” admitting to anxiety and panic attacks that plagued her during her 20s. “No one talked about panic attacks in the mid-2000s,” she added, highlighting the stigma surrounding mental health at the time.
Back then, Olsen thought managing her anxiety was as simple as making a to-do list. She didn’t realize the panic attacks were something beyond her control. “I had to figure out how to have some control,” she explained. Unfortunately, those attacks were frequent, hitting her multiple times a day—“Like almost every hour!” The triggers were often simple shifts: going from hot to cold or hungry to full. She recalled feeling anxious at the slightest change, saying, “I thought, ‘Oh, is this OK?’ and then it would spiral, and it just became this habit.”
Fast-forward to today and Olsen has successfully managed her anxiety. She developed techniques to “interrupt the thinking process” by naming everything she saw in her head, which helped ground her in those moments of panic. Remarkably, she has not had a panic attack since mastering these methods. “You learn very quickly who you feel comfortable around and who you don’t,” she noted, emphasizing the importance of surrounding oneself with supportive people.
Her experiences weren’t just limited to acting pressures. Olsen faced intense panic attacks while living in New York at 21. “I remember I would get [panic attacks] on the hour every hour,” she recalled in a past interview with Variety. Crossing the street would sometimes trigger overwhelming anxiety, making her feel as if she might drop dead at any moment. “If I went from cold to hot, hot to cold, full to hungry, hungry to full—any kind of shift in my body, my whole body thought, ‘Uh oh, something’s wrong!’”
Her coping strategies extended even to her fashion choices. Olsen admitted she ditched wearing high heels because they amplified her anxiety. If she had to wear them for a public event, she would only do so briefly, explaining, “People thought it was a feminist choice. Like, no! If I wear them, I’m going to panic. I’d rather have my feet on the ground.” She even expressed her aversion to rollercoasters and recounted a traumatic helicopter ride during the His Three Daughters press tour, stating, “It was like being on a rollercoaster for an hour and a half… I’ll never do it again.”
Adding to her story, Olsen reflected on growing up in the shadow of her famous sisters, Mary-Kate and Ashley. She stayed back while they traveled the world for filming, preferring musical summer camps. “My version of rebelling was saying, ‘I don’t want to be an actor; I want to be an accountant or an investment banker,’” she confessed. Her reluctance to follow in her sisters’ footsteps kept her grounded in her youth.
Elizabeth Olsen’s journey highlights resilience and the importance of addressing mental health struggles. From nearly quitting acting to finding her footing, her story is an inspiring reminder of the power of self-awareness and personal growth.
