Elizabeth Olsen Opens Up About Having Panic Attacks 'Almost Every Hour' in Her 20s

Mar. 15, 2025

Elizabeth Olsen.Photo:Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Elizabeth Olsenis speaking out about past mental health struggles.

“I’ve gone through phases of it,” Olsen said of having anxiety and panic attacks during her 20s. “Figuring out what works for me, or what works enough. No one talked about panic attacks in the mid-2000s.”

She added, “I thought it meant you just write a list and check things off and get over it. I didn’t realize it was something you had no control over, but I had to figure out how to have some control.”

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Elizabeth Olsen at the 2023 Oscars on March 12, 2023.ABC/Getty

ABC/Getty

Explaining that there were times she would have panic attacks multiple times a day, she added, “Like, almost every hour!”

“It was literally, like, any time there was a shift in something: hot to cold, hungry to full. I thought, ‘Oh, is this OK?’ And then it would spiral and it just became this habit,” she continued.

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Speaking about how she overcame the attacks, Olsen said she would  “interrupt the thinking process” and name everything she saw in her head to interrupt it.

Having not had a panic attack since then, the star added, “You learn very quickly who you feel comfortable around and who you don’t.”

Meanwhile, back in 2022, Olsen opened up about how intense her panic attacks were.

Speaking withVariety, theWandaVisionstar said she experienced the attacks while she wasliving in New York at 21 years old.

“I remember I would get [panic attacks] on the hour every hour,” she said at the time. “I used to live on 13th Street between 6th and 7th. I was crossing 6th Avenue at 14th Street, and I realized I couldn’t cross the street — I stood up against the wall, and I just thought I was going to drop dead at any moment.”

source: people.com