The Truth About Katherine Heigl's Battle With Anxiety

Katherine Heigl may have earned both fame and fortune as a successful actor, but she has also experienced some pretty brutal low points over the years. For instance, along with starring in some box office bombs and once giving an interview that basically ruined her career overnight, she also became hated in Hollywood after some of the questionable things she said and did.

While appearing as Dr. Izzie Stevens on Grey's Anatomy, Heigl ruffled some feathers when she "abstained from 2008 awards consideration because she 'did not feel that [she] was given the material ... to warrant an Emmy nomination,'" according to Page Six. On top of that, she "also went on David Letterman's show to grouse about toiling 17 hours a day on set." As a result, she was "branded difficult to work with."

Granted, while Heigl claimed in an interview with The Washington Post in January 2021 that "you can be the most awful, difficult, horrible person on the planet, but if you're making them money, they're going to keep hiring you," she also admitted that her "films started to make not quite as much money," which left her in a bad spot. In turn, Heigl started to struggle in a very serious way.

When Katherine Heigl's career suffered and she experienced a "shunning," which is how she described it to The Washington Post in January 2021. She found herself dealing with anxiety, which had been an issue since she was a teenager. The situation got so bad that she admitted, "I think my family, my mother, my husband, my friends were scared. And I regret deeply that I scared them like that. But I just couldn't control it. I had no tools."

Things again took a turn for the worse, both in the year before and after the birth of Heigl's son, with the star recalling, "I asked my mom and my husband to find me somewhere to go that could help me because I felt like I would rather be dead." She added, "I didn't realize how much anxiety I was living with until I got so bad that I had to really seek help." Fortunately, the star was able to get the help that she needed when she began to see a therapist and started medication. Heigl explained, "You can do a lot of inner soul work, but I'm a big fan of Zoloft."

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, or call the National Alliance on Mental Illness Helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264). If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.