LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19 (UPI) — Amanda Seyfried has opened up about living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and how she has treated her mental illness.
“I’m on Lexapro, and I’ll never get off of it. I’ve been on it since I was 19, so 11 years. I’m on the lowest dose,” the actress shared in the latest issue of Allure magazine.
“I don’t see the point of getting off of it. Whether it’s placebo or not, I don’t want to risk it. And what are you fighting against? Just the stigma of using a tool?” she continued about wanting to remain medicated.
“A mental illness is a thing that people cast in a different category [from other illnesses], but I don’t think it is. It should be taken as seriously as anything else,” she said. “You don’t see the mental illness: It’s not a mass; it’s not a cyst. But it’s there. Why do you need to prove it? If you can treat it, you treat it.”
Seyfried revealed how OCD has affected her life and how it has led to anxiety. “I had pretty bad health anxiety that came from the OCD and thought I had a tumor in my brain,” the 30-year-old explained. “I had an MRI, and the neurologist referred me to a psychiatrist.”
Another fear related to her OCD involved the use of stoves. “I always worry about people and how they use stoves. Which is just a controlling thing,” she said. “[It’s] about the gas. You could so easily burn down something if you leave the stove on. Or the oven.”
Seyfried last made headlines in September when she became engaged to her Last Word co-star Thomas Sadoski.
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