Ryan Reynolds says his daughters inspired him to speak about his mental health.
Ryan Reynolds
The 44-year-old actor recently posted on Instagram to mark Mental Health Awareness month in May, and has now said it was his three daughters – James, six, Inez, four, and Betty, 19 months, whom he has with his wife Blake Lively – who inspired him to talk about his anxiety.
He said: “Part of it is that I have three daughters at home and part of my job as a parent is to model behaviours and model what it’s like to be sad and model what it’s like to be anxious, or angry. That there’s space for all these things. The home that I grew in, that wasn’t modelled for me really. And that’s not to say that my parents were neglectful, but they come from a different generation.”
And Ryan said he’s keen to remove the stigma from mental health so that more people feel confident talking about it.
He added: “Part of that is to de-stigmatise things and create a conversation around [mental health]. I know that when I felt at the absolute bottom it’s usually been because I felt like I was alone in something I was feeling. So I think when people talk about it, I don’t necessarily dwell on it or lament on it, but I think it’s important to talk about it. And when you talk about it, it kind of sets other people free.”
The ‘Deadpool’ star hopes that by speaking out about his own experiences, he can help others in the same position.
Speaking to ‘Entertainment Tonight’, he said: “Other people feel like, ‘Oh, he’s feeling that and so am I.’ And even though we might be in two completely different fields or we might have two completely different lives, it connects us in a way. A lot of it is just wanting to model certain things for my own kids and model things for anyone who might need to hear it.”
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