Amanda Seyfried Opens up About Her OCD and the Mental Health Stigma

Amanda Seyfried, YAS.

The 29-year-old actress has bravely opened up about her mental health in the past and continues to help fight the stigma surrounding mental illness by talking about her OCD, PEOPLE reports.

Seyfried has talked about her life-long handling of anxiety, OCD, mental illness in general and how it has impacted her life and how she handles things.

"I have a lot of anxiety that I've been struggling with my whole life. So I have been working through it. I'm terrified, but this is exactly what I wanted."

"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. 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."

"I had pretty bad health anxiety that came from the OCD and thought I had a tumor in my brain," she says.

"I had an MRI, and the neurologist referred me to a psychiatrist. As I get older, the compulsive thoughts and fears have diminished a lot. Knowing that a lot of my fears are not reality-based really helps."

The A-List star uses medication to help regulate her mind and manage her fears,

"Yeah. 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. 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?"

"I don't feel like I'm struggling with it. I think OCD is a part of me that protects me. It's also the part of me that I use in my job, in a positive way." She added, "The only thing I'd like to get beyond is my fear of driving over bridges and through tunnels. I can't overcome it."