Ryan Reynolds Gets Candid About Battles With Anxiety in Emotional Post

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and with the month coming to an end in just a few days, Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds is getting candid about his own battles with anxiety in an emotional post on social media. On Wednesday, the actor took to Instagram to share his own experiences with anxiety, opening up about the various ways his mental health struggles manifest, sharing them with followers and fans to help destigmatize these issues by talking about them.

“One of the reasons I’m posting this so late is I overschedule myself and important things slip,” Reynolds wrote. “And one of the reasons I overschedule myself is my lifelong pal, anxiety. I know I’m not alone and more importantly, to all those like me who overschedule, overthink, overwork, over-worry, and over-everything, please know you’re not alone. We don’t talk enough about mental health and don’t do enough to destigmatize talking about it. But, as with this post, better late than never, I hope…”

Reynolds isn’t the only actor who has in recent years opened up about struggles with mental health, specifically anxiety. Chris Evans previously revealed that his own anxiety even led him to turn down the role of Captain America more than once.

“Normally you do one of those movies at a time and if that movie hits and is a success, your life changes,” Evans told the YouTube channel Motivation Madness in 2018. “The worry was if this movie hits and there is a lifestyle change and I don’t react well to it, I don’t have the opportunity — the luxury — to say ‘You know guys, I’m good.’”

The Flash’s Grant Gustin also opened up about his own battle with the illness that impacts over 40 million Americans, getting candid in a 2020 appearance on Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum.

“Since really young, probably four or five, I’ve dealt with anxiety and depression. I had really weird, anxious-type dreams as a really young kid. I don’t want to get too into it, but before we got married, we started doing couple’s therapy, just to be ready for marriage before,” Gustin said. “There was really nothing going on in the marriage, and then all kinds of things, for both of us, started to come to the surface, and it’s good for us as a couple and as individuals. I knew I had always dealt with anxiety, but getting pinpointed ideas about where things started, and why you were feeling that way. Anxiety’s ever-present in my life, for sure.”

What do you think about Reynold’s candid post about his battle with anxiety? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images