October 23, 2024, 11:25 am | Read time: 4 minutes
Hollywood star Elizabeth Olsen is the talk of the town right now. She recently received high praise for her performance in the Netflix film “Three Daughters” and, much to the delight of her fans, she is soon to return to the Marvel universe as Scarlet Witch. In a recent interview, the sought-after actress gave a rare insight into her private life. In her 20s, the younger sister of famous twins suffered from extreme anxiety and panic attacks.
In the majority of her film and series roles, she embodies strong characters who have to show a certain depth of feeling and overcome challenges at the same time. It seems to be similar in her real life. Now a successful actress, Elizabeth Olsen talks about difficult phases in the 2000s in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian. Back then, panic attacks were a daily occurrence for her.
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Elizabeth Olsen on severe panic attacks in her 20s
According to Elizabeth Olsen, her stress levels were so high at the time that even the smallest things could upset her. And this was at a time when people didn’t talk about panic attacks: “I didn’t realize that you had no control over them.” She had to find out for herself how to get anxiety under control.
Elizabeth Olsen’s family background should be mentioned at this point. It may have had some influence on the development of her mental health problems. Her older sisters are the famous “Olsen twins” Mary-Kate and Ashley, who literally grew up in front of the camera. At just nine months old, they began their acting careers in the popular US television series Full House, in which the identical twins took turns playing the role of Michelle Elizabeth Tanner. The so-called Olsen twins were under public scrutiny from an early age, which must have been an enormous emotional burden. Mary-Kate, in particular, was known to have suffered from health problems and eating disorders as a young adult. Nevertheless, Elizabeth Olsen also decided to become an actress.
Pressure to succeed as an actress
With her sisters, Elizabeth Olsen had a cautionary example of the dark side of fame right under her nose. She also felt enormous pressure from the success within her family – in addition to the pressure that already exists in the acting industry. As she revealed in an earlier interview, she always feared that the public would accuse her of nepotism. “I never got a role because of my sisters,” she made clear at the time.
How the panic attacks presented themselves – and how Elizabeth Olsen dealt with them
At her worst, Elizabeth Olsen struggled with panic attacks every day. “Several times, almost every hour,” she confessed to The Guardian. The slightest change, for example, in temperature or physical sensations – from hungry to full, for example – could throw her off balance. This was initially followed by uncertainty, “and then everything went into a tailspin,” said the now 35-year-old. This process became an agonizing habit. In order to free herself from these spirals, Elizabeth Olsen had to interrupt these thought processes, as she soon realized. “You learn very quickly in which environment you feel comfortable and in which you don’t.”
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Avoiding unusual triggers: high heels
Surprising: Elizabeth Olsen discovered that wearing high heels triggers the dreaded anxiety states in her. As a Hollywood star in the spotlight who attends red-carpet events, she naturally has some experience with this. For years, she therefore avoided them completely. “People thought it was a feminist decision,” she recalls. However, she simply wanted to keep her feet on the ground. At some point, she switched to only wearing high heels for limited periods of time – for example, for appearances on stage or in front of photographers – and then quickly taking them off again.
Elizabeth Olsen taught herself mindfulness techniques to cope with her panic attacks in acute cases. There are, therefore, parallels to her currently celebrated role of Christina in the streaming hit Three Daughters. She is also one of three sisters (the Olsens also have brothers Trent, Taylor, and Jake) and a young woman who struggles with anxiety disorders and uses breathing exercises and meditation to calm herself down.