Ryan Reynolds says his anxiety sent him to 'depths of the darker end of the spectrum'
Ryan Reynolds may have charmed us all with his witty jokes but beneath it all, he is just like everyone else. Recently, in an interview with New York Times, the actor opened up about how he suffers from anxiety and finds it hard to deal with the fame which comes with being a celebrity.
“I have anxiety, I’ve always had anxiety,” Ryan confessed. “Both in the lighthearted ‘I’m anxious about this’ kind of thing, and I’ve been to the depths of the darker end of the spectrum, which is not fun.” Ryan became a successful name in the industry during the early stages of his career and while it shows his potential, it also sets pressure on how he will be perceived as an actor in future, as well as, the expectations people will have from him.
Ryan said his early 20s became his “real unhinged phase.” “I was partying and just trying to make myself vanish in some way,” he said. Ryan confessed that there came a point when he started self-medicating himself in order to deal with his anxiety but soon realized that it was dangerous when he saw his friends die due to overdose.
While things get hard, Ryan sure has his own way of dealing with anxiety. To begin with, he tries to get into his character of 'Deadpool'. He believes it helps him calm his anxiety and get through the day easily. “When the curtain opens, I turn on this knucklehead, and he kind of takes over and goes away again once I walk off set,” he said.
"That’s that great self-defense mechanism,” he continued. “I figure if you’re going to jump off a cliff, you might as well fly.” Previously, in an interview with Variety in 2017, Ryan had opened up about how the movie 'Deadpool' often took his sleep at night. “I never ever slept. Or I was sleeping at a perfect right angle — just sitting straight, constantly working at the same time,” he said. “By the time we were in post [production], we’d been to Comic-Con, and people went crazy for it. The expectations were eating me alive.”
However, there was one thing that helped him through this and it was none other than his wife, Blake Lively. “Blake helped me through that,” Reynolds said. “I’m lucky to have her around just to keep me sane.” Even though there are still times when he suffers from anxiety, he knows he has to get back up and face the world.