May is Mental Health Awareness Month. To support this, the Child Mind Institute is promoting the #MyYoungerSelf campaign, which features a different celebrity each day sharing a message with others suffering from mental illness or disorders. So far, California’s Lieutenant Governor, Gavin Newsom, posted for dyslexia, NY Giant Brandon Marshall for borderline personality disorder, Todd Fisher, on behalf of Carrie Fisher, for bipolar disorder and entertainer (her words) Keke Palmer spoke out on depression. My boy Michael Phelps steps up to the plate tomorrow. A few celebrities have addressed their anxiety and shared the coping techniques that helped them. Among them is Arrow star Colton Haynes who disclosed he suffered from anxiety in 2015. The advice he shared is really interesting to me. He equates the feeling of anxiety to the feeling of excitement so he told kids that when they feel anxious, they should try telling themselves they are excited instead.
Colton Haynes shared advice to his younger self about how to overcome anxiety in a new video for Child Mind Institute’s #MyYoungerSelf campaign.
“I think some advice I would give to myself when I was younger, especially about anxiety, would be that it’s OK to be anxious,” the Arrow actor, 28, told fans in a video message. “Also, a really, really good way to help yourself get over anxiety is to tell yourself that you’re excited instead of that you’re anxious.”
Haynes explained that he tried the tip when he was younger and it helped with his anxiety. “If you’re excited it’s almost the same feeling, but obviously without the panic part,” he said. “So, whenever you start to get a little anxious, just tell yourself, ‘I’m excited about this. I’m not anxious about this.’ And that really does tend to help.”
The Teen Wolf alum then shared a message to people battling mental health disorders. “You’re not alone. I think that that’s really something that I’ve learned in my recovery process for anxiety,” he said. “There’s millions of people out there who suffer from crippling anxiety, whether it be from fainting or from sweating or so many [other] different ailments from anxiety. There’s so many people that have it and suffer from it, so you’re not alone. It gets so much better once you’re able to learn the tools to cope with it.”
As for Haynes’ final piece of advice? “Sometimes just having a dance party can really, really, really help anxiety,” he added. “Or just breathing in for seven and out for 11.”
I do not suffer from anxiety so I don’t know how implementable Colton’s advice is but I like the sound of it – to transmute a terrifying experience into something positive. As Colton said, somebody suggested it to him and it worked so I hope, for those of you hearing this for the first time, you give it a try and that it helps you as well. I, myself, am a huge proponent of the “breath in seven and out for 11” practice.
The #MyYoungerSelf campaign is amazing and I applaud everyone who is taking part in it. Todd Fisher addressed in his video that the biggest help Carrie got was treatment, including medication. So often any form of admission and treatment was stigmatized so people didn’t admit or seek help for that reason. It is important for people to speak out, offer advice like this and to let others know they aren’t alone. Like Colton saying, “it’s OK to be anxious,” that may be the first time a sufferer has heard that.
If you can contribute to the campaign in anyway, please do so, even if that just means spreading the word. I personally want to offer a big thank you to those of you who reached out to me about my son’s OCD/ADHD. I really, truly appreciate it.
As for Colton, he’s fighting the good fight and I wish him nothing but success. He continues to speak out about anxiety to bring other sufferers from the shadows and his advice comes from personal triumph. And I cannot fist pump enough to his last bit of advice – a dance party helps just about everything.
I probably don’t have to tell you how much in love I am with this coat he wore to NYFW, right?
Photo credit: Getty Images and WENN Photos
I’d tell myself to just breathe. Don’t go looking for answers from someone else.
Things are different now than back then. Just breathe honestly
I’m into him, he gives life for being very open and honest and forthright, cute fashions too
yes, especially those times he covered his body in black paint and pretended to be “gangster
well, there’s a difference between diagnosed, pathological anxiety and just anxiety. I actually heard that tip he’s talking about before and it might work for regular anxiety, as in “I’m afraid of this test” “I dislike speaking in public”, but an actual anxiety disorder is caused by an imbalance of brain chemicals and, trust me, no words of encouragement will fix that.
YES. This. SO, so much this. 1000000000 x this.
It’s true in terms of positive thinking and pep talks, yes. However, exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapies have been demonstrated to be effective in helping people. They appear to rebalance brain activity so that the fear center, the amygdala, is less active (or at least not over-active) and the frontal lobes, the centers of evaluation and judgement, are more active. It gives people those critical milliseconds to evaluate perceived threats and respond in a different way, which can alter the release of stress hormones.
They’re not as easy to learn as pep talks, yes. They take practice and dedication, and there’s a lot of written homework to evaluate cognitions and distortion. But in the end, it can help rebalance those chemicals — to reduce the release of cortisol, essentially.
I know.
I’m just really sensitive about that topic and tips like this just rub me the wrong way, because they often make it seem like it’s not an actual disorder. That you can just easily get over it or you are not trying hard enough.
That’s not only nonsense, but, I think, it also discourages people from seeking professional treatment (as you mentioned).
This seems like a really good campaign to bring awareness.
Also, he’s extremely handsome. I’ve not seen him in anything before, but I need to!
Love Colton!
He’s been very open about his struggles with anxiety, including seizures.
http://ew.com/article/2015/12/02/colton-haynes-anxiety-twitter/
I have had a seizure disorder for almost 4 years. Anxiety and emotional stressors are major triggers for seizures. I have been involved in a program that’s been incredibly helpful.
Breathing exercises isva very effective method for dealing with anxiety and seizures.
https://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/07/22/reduce-your-anxiety-this-minute-3-different-types-of-deep-breathing/
http://www.epilepsy.com/connect/forums/complementary-therapies/how-prevent-many-seizures-2-3-minutes-simple-breathing
Right on Colton!