Kristen Bell Gets Refreshingly Honest About Mental Illness, Anxiety, and Depression

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There are tons and tons of reasons to love Kristen Bell, but she worries about the haters just as much as the rest of us. In a recent no-holds-barred interview with a show called Off Camera, the actress came clean about her personal struggles with depression, anxiety, and other forms of mental illness. We've seen tons of brilliance from Kristen so far this year; she geeked out at the Game of Thrones premiere, recorded an amazing homemade music video with husband Dax Shepard, and even "prayed" for Kanye in a hilarious Instagram snap. These quotes, however, might show our favorite side of Kristen so far. Keep reading for the vulnerable snippets, then look back at her sweetest moments with Dax.

• On wanting to be well liked: "I'm extremely codependent. I shatter a little bit when I think people don't like me. That's part of why I lead with kindness and I compensate by being very bubbly all the time because it really hurts my feelings when I know I'm not liked. And I know that's not very healthy and I fight it all the time."
• On when she first started struggling with her personal issues: "I also struggled a lot with anxiety and depression. . . . My mom sat me down when I was probably 18 and she said, 'There is a serotonin imbalance in our family line and it can often be passed from female to female.'"
• On getting help for herself: "[My mom's] a nurse and she had the wherewithal to recognize that in herself when she was feeling it and when I was 18 said, 'If you start to feel like you are twisting things around you, and you feel like there is no sunlight around you, and you are paralyzed with fear, this is what it is and here's how you can help yourself.'"
• On the shame associated with mental illness: "I have no shame in that because my mom had said to me, 'If you start to feel this way, talk to your doctor, talk to a psychologist, see how you want to help yourself, and if you do decide to go on a prescription to help yourself, understand that the world wants to shame you for that, but in the medical community, you would never deny a diabetic his insulin.' . . . But for some reason, when someone needs a serotonin inhibitor, they're immediately crazy or something."