Despite her widespread success, Lana Condor still struggles with fame. Since becoming a household name following the release of the first To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before film in August 2018, the Netflix star has been honest with fans about the status of her mental health.
“I’m realizing now, particularly this year, that there’s a lot of strength in showing people that everything is not always daisies every single minute of every single day,” the actress told Self in February 2021. After saying “yes to everything” after the first To All the Boys movie was released, Lana hit a wall mentally.
“I’ve never felt more horrible mentally. I was so burned out … I would go home at night and I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I would shake going to bed and shake waking up because it was just so much stimulation,” she explained to the publication. “I was on the phone with my team and I had this moment where I just was in tears, telling them that I don’t feel OK. And they were all shocked because I wasn’t open about my feelings.”
After breaking down, the actress felt like it was “a new beginning.”
“Now, I know the power of sharing [my feelings],” Lana said. “My mom and my dad are so supportive and we’ve had conversations about ‘Lana, you need to stop. You’re clearly unhappy’ … ‘OK, let’s figure out the root of that.’ My parents have been a great sounding board.”
She learned to talk about her “mental health” and “heart,” explaining to Self that it was “something that I completely threw away for the sake of others.”
“So once I shared it and was vulnerable with my team, it was a huge change,” Lana shared. “They really have helped me navigate the industry now in a much more healthy way, where I feel like I can do what I love and also be the person that I want to be for myself.”
Going forward, Lana is open with her close friends and confidants about her mental health, but also publicly discusses her struggles to help fans who may be going through the same thing. During the same Self interview, the X-Men: Apocalypse alum also revealed that she’s constantly working through body dysmorphia.
“If someone were to come to me asking for advice about body dysmorphia and any sort of mental health, I would just say you have to treat yourself like your best friend,” she explained. “You would never tell your best friend the things that you say to yourself in your darkest times. You would never in a million years. I think that we have to talk to ourselves kindly and gently … I don’t know where I stand with the afterlife, but I think this is it. This mind and this body is the one we get.”
Scroll through our gallery to read Lana’s most candid quotes on mental health.
If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Youth Crisis Hotline at 1-800-448-4663.
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