Kristen Bell Reveals What Causes Her To ‘Shatter A Little Bit’

Kristen Bell seems like a delight. She takes on film roles that appear to be fun to play, and she always seems blissfully happy together with Dax Shepard and their children. However, Bell now reveals that she hasn’t always been such a joyous person, nor is she always as happy as she may seem to the public. Kristen says that she has always suffered from bouts of anxiety and depression. Now, Ms. Bell is prepared to talk about it and let it all out, hoping that it will help others as much as it may be therapeutic for herself.

Kristen Bell Inherited More Than Beauty From The Women In Her Family

According to Hello Magazine, in talking about her experiences with depression and anxiety, Ms. Bell reveals she’s not the first person to suffer from such mental illnesses and says that both her mother and her grandmother were similarly affected by depression. Knowing that she’s not alone in her psychological illnesses hasn’t helped Bell cope with them any better. Kristen says she often finds herself deeply concerned with how others view her, especially when Kristen finds herself meeting people for the first time or confronting new situations.

“I’m extremely co-dependent,” said Ms. Bell. “I shatter a little bit when I think people don’t like me.”

Bell says she doesn’t cope very well in those situations. Even though she recognizes that she overcompensates by being overly nice, Kristen admits that she really can’t help herself.

“That’s part of why I lead with kindness and I compensate by being very bubbly all the time because it really hurts my feelings when I know I’m not liked. And I know that’s not very healthy and I fight it all the time.”

Bad Moms Star Kristen Bell Isn’t Afraid To Ask For Help

Bell says she knows there’s no shame in asking for help and even sought the advice of her mother when she was just a teenager. Kristen says her mother understood that feeling depressed was like feeling that everything was dark and twisted. She explained depression and anxiety to her and advised Kristen on how best to handle life when she found herself paralyzed by fear.

“I have no shame in that because my mum had said to me, ‘If you start to feel this way, talk to your doctor, talk to a psychologist, see how you want to help yourself,” said Kristen. “She said, ‘If you do decide to go on a prescription to help yourself, understand that the world wants to shame you for that, but in the medical community, you would never deny a diabetic his insulin. Ever.”

Ms. Bell voices the concerns of many as she alludes to the stigma with which society treats those suffering from mental illness. While mental illness comes in degrees and not all illnesses render sufferers incapable of functioning in society, Bell says people react in extreme ways to those suffering from mental illness.

“But for some reason, when someone needs a serotonin inhibitor, they’re immediately crazy or something.”

Kristen Bell also revealed, according to Yahoo Celebrity, that she found wisdom from being a parent and says that her own children have helped her to learn how to better deal with difficult people or stressful situations. Bell says she often carries the thought with her that even difficult people have moms and those mothers still loved their children, knowing all about their shortcomings. The Bad Moms actress tries to bear this in mind when dealing with them.

Speaking of being a mother, Kristen initiated the No Kids Policy with husband Dax Shepard, which compels paparazzi to take a step back and avoid taking pictures of celebrities while they are in the company of their young children. Kristen says the photographers often frighten the children and make the public viewers of the pictures feel uncomfortable.

“It’s a huge feeling to know I saw a problem, attacked it like a mother, and actually made a difference. I’ve heard from entertainers with a bigger profile that it made a difference in their lives and that their children are less paranoid because they’re not being hunted by a strange group of men and women.”

Kristen Bell can be seen as a different kind of mother in Bad Moms, which also stars Mila Kunis and Christina Applegate. The film hits theaters on July 29.

[Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Annenberg Foundation]