During the Cannes Film Festival, Léa Seydoux spoke to the American media Variety on a very intimate subject: the panic attacks that still punctuate his daily life. Indeed, if the actress reveals that she began to suffer from severe anxiety at the end of adolescence, she has still not completely gotten rid of it.
Léa Seydoux suffers from severe panic attacks
In the columns of Variety, Léa Seydoux admits to having suffered from significant peaks of stress at a very young age. “When I was 18, I had major panic attacks.“, she explains.
The actress also describes the disturbing sensation that accompanies these episodes: a form of disconnection from herself, as if her identity suddenly became foreign. She says in particular that she once looked at herself in a mirror and had difficulty recognizing herself. A disconcerting experience, close to what some specialists call a “dissociation phenomenon”.
“I remember a crisis: I looked at myself in the mirror and said to myself: It’s me. I am myself. What I see in the mirror is really me”, she confides.
And while this feeling of strangeness may be surprising, it has infiltrated almost everywhere in the actress’s life… even on movie sets.
When she sees herself on screen, the actress explains that she feels detached from her own reflection. “When I watch a movie with me in it, I sometimes wonder, ‘Is that really me? Do I really look like this character?’
A disturbing, even oppressive feeling of discrepancy, which Léa Seydoux associates with a form of extreme sensitivity.
“I am hypersensitive, bad in society, almost maladjusted”
In an interview given to Madame Figaro in 2021, the actress already explained that cinema had “saved” her, since her profession had allowed her to express emotions that she had difficulty verbalizing on a daily basis.
“I am hypersensitive, bad in society, almost maladjusted. This job has allowed me to translate into emotions what I could not always say with words, to understand the world, to understand myself too”she had thus developed with our colleagues, describing her daily life as an actress as a “bubble of joy”.
Strong panic attacks: how to explain them?
First of all, let’s remember what a panic attack is: it is a strong anxiety attack that occurs suddenly. It lasts, on average, 20 to 30 minutes but in some cases it can last up to an hour. Often, it is confused with a myocardial infarction, or even an asthma attack, especially if it is a first panic attack.
Concerning the causes, panic attacks can be triggered by several factors: recent intense stress (or an anxiety situation which intensifies over time), severe fatigue, emotional shock or excessive psychological pressure. These attacks can also appear for no obvious reason, especially in people who are hypersensitive or prone to anxiety disorders.
To (try to) get rid of it, you must first identify the sources of stress, improve your lifestyle (sleep, regular exercise, etc.) and learn to breathe better. Consulting a psychologist can also be beneficial to help defuse the mechanisms linked to your anxiety (in mild cases, cognitive and behavioral psychotherapy is a great tool and helps to avoid new crises).