'Normal People' star Daisy Edgar-Jones opened about up her anxiety and hypochondria
- "Normal People" star Daisy-Edgar Jones said she struggles with anxiety, and it sometimes manifests as hypochondria.
- Hypochondria, also called illness anxiety disorder, is a mental health condition where you're completely preoccupied and worried that you're sick.
- Edgar-Jones, who is 22, discussed her mental health on the "How to Fail" podcast with Elizabeth Day.
- She said she worried about missing out on life experiences when her friends went off to university and she was being rejected at auditions.
- She's now found ways to control it, and doesn't let herself Google illnesses anymore.
Daisy Edgar-Jones opened up about her mental health struggles on the "How to Fail" podcast with Elizabeth Day that was released last week. She said her anxiety often manifests as hypochondria, and she used to Google symptoms because it made her feel like she was in control.
She told Day she thinks the condition developed around the time when her friends all went off to university and she was chasing acting auditions. She started to question whether she was missing out of life experiences.
"It feels like you're dating someone, sometimes, when you're auditioning," she said. "They ask you out and you really think you're right for them, they keep calling you back for dates, and just when you think they're going to ask you out they go for someone else."
She said it could be really heartbreaking, and she could spiral into doubt about whether she should take a university place.
"I found that very anxiety-making and I really struggled for a while," she said.
Her hypochondria "comes in waves," she said. "I just think it's my way kind of way of dealing with anxiety."
"If I see a rash for example, I'm like, 'Okay. If I really need to overthink that and Google the heck out of that, then I'm controlling it in some way,'" she continued. "If I find out that it's something really sinister, I've caught it before it could potentially become something worse."
Hypochondria, also called illness anxiety disorder, is a mental health condition where you're constantly convinced and worried that you are very sick.
Licensed therapist Kati Morton told Insider in a previous article that those with illness anxiety disorder have such an excessive preoccupation with being ill that they can barely think about anything else.
"I might think, 'Oh, I caught a cold, but I'll be fine,' and people tend to normally downplay it," she said.
"Whereas people with illness anxiety disorder, it turns into this huge thing. And because they're so worried they're sick, they will avoid a lot of different places, and group outings, because they don't want to get anybody sick or they're afraid they're going to get sick."
Edgar-Jones said she'd been faced with mortality from a very young age when her grandfather and uncle both passed away, and her fear of being ill may have stemmed from there. She has now found ways to deal with her anxieties though, mainly by not letting herself Google conditions anymore.
"If I believe that it's a rational thought, then I'll panic myself," she said. "But if I make sure I realize it isn't, then it's fine."
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