Ryan Reynolds on How Anxiety Makes Him Feel Like a “Different Person”

Reynolds has spoken about his battle with anxiety before, and how it’s something he’s experienced since he was a child. “I have three older brothers,” he told Variety in 2017. “Our father was tough. He wasn’t easy on anyone. And he wasn’t easy on himself. I think the anxiety might have started there, trying to find ways to control others by trying to control myself. At the time, I never recognized that. I was just a twitchy kid.” 

He also talked about it during a 2018 interview with The New York Times. “I have anxiety, I’ve always had anxiety,” he told the newspaper. “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.”

And last May, Reynolds—who shares children James, 7, Inez, 5, and Betty, 2, with Blake Lively—wrote an Instagram post about his “lifelong pal, anxiety” in honor of Mental Health Awareness month. “I know I’m not alone,” he noted, “and more importantly, to all those like me who overschedule, overthink, overwork, over-worry and over-everything, please know you’re not alone.”