Lena Dunham became "dependent" on people's "influx of praise".
Lena Dunham
The 'Girls' star admits she knows what it feels like to be "adored" but also understands and sympathises with the feeling of being "cast out and away".
She shared: "I know what it feels like to be adored - to be hailed as refreshing, delightful, necessary, approachably stylish and fun. I also know what it feels like to be cast out and away, for some valid reasons and other arbitrary ones; or, more accurately, for valid reasons that then make the arbitrary ones seem pretty damn good, too.
"I know what it feels like to be so dependent on an influx of praise that the loss of it feels like the removal of a vital organ. I know what it feels like to fully believe the hatred that is being directed at you by strangers, and to stop believing the people who love you when they tell you there is more to your story. I know what it feels like to be sure you've failed your family, and to be isolated from them because you cannot forgive yourself that failure."
Meanwhile, the 33-year-old actress admitted she struggled with the "long and lonely process" of trying to find herself and navigate perfection.
Writing in a lengthy article for The Guardian newspaper in tribute to the late Caroline Flack, she shared of her own journey: "It was a long and lonely process, searching for another set of metrics by which to measure my own worth, to see myself as a human divorced from the echo chamber of fickle fandom and female perfection. It didn't change until I started asking myself: was I kind today? Was I honest? Did I do my best to be accountable to the people I love, and when I was wrong did I promptly admit it?"
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