Amanda Seyfried is not allowing this challenging phase to slip through her fingers. In fact, she's embracing this part of her mental health journey with open arms. The "Mamma Mia!" actor reflected on being diagnosed with a "really extreme" case of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and how it impacted her decisions as a young actor.
"I was living in Marina del Rey at the time, shooting 'Big Love,' and my mom had to take a sabbatical from work in Pennsylvania to live with me for a month," Amanda, now 40, told Vogue in an interview published on Jan. 8. "I got my brain scans, and that's when I started taking medication—which I still take every night, to this day."
Indeed, the "Mean Girls" alum previously admitted that she's been taking Lexapro "since I was 19." However, she doesn't strictly rely on her medication to help calm the disorder. OCD, according to the Mayo Clinic, features a pattern of unwanted thoughts and fears known as obsessions that can lead to repetitive behaviors.
In the early years of her acting career, Amanda—who shares two kids with husband Thomas Sadoski—also distanced herself from triggers such as "drinking too much alcohol, doing any drugs at all, or staying out too late." "I would make plans and then just not go," she explained. "I guess I did make choices. I didn't enter that realm of nightclubs. I gotta give credit to my OCD."
This isn't the first time Amanda has detailed how she was diagnosed with OCD. In fact, she noted that she spoke to several doctors about her symptoms before starting her medication. "I had an MRI, and the neurologist referred me to a psychiatrist," she told Allure in 2016. "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 "Housemaid" star continued, "A mental illness is something that people often cast in a different category [from other illnesses], but I don't think it should be. 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."
