Anxiety is one of the most common mental illnesses in the United States. Every year, it affects 40 million adults in the country, and actor and comedian Bill Hader is one of them.
In a new video for the Child Mind Institute's #MyYoungerSelf campaign, Hader shares his experience with anxiety. As he explains, it's always been a part of his daily life. When he attempted to do simple tasks like ride the school bus alone, Hader says that "there was always a little voice in my head telling me, 'here's all the things that could go wrong.'"
In the four minute video, Hader talks about how, as he's gotten older, he's found new strategies to cope. He told his younger self that “what helped me was learning that [the anxiety] doesn't really go away. You manage it. And instead of pushing away your anxiety — and I always imagined my anxiety as this little monster that would kind of attack my face or pull my ears — instead of pushing that thing away and trying to fight it, I would just go, ‘Hey, oh hey buddy.’ You know, like it was a little monkey.”
The #MyYoungerSelf campaign aims to bring awareness to mental health and learning disabilities by asking celebrities and influencers to share advice with their younger selves through homemade videos released every day in May. The campaign features Ray Romano, Antoni Porowski, Gillian Anderson, and many others.
Topics Health Social Good
