Millie Bobby Brown Says Japanese Monks Cured Her 3-Month Anxiety Attack
“I'm getting teary eyed talking about it, but it took me out of the cycle. I needed it.”
Millie Bobby Brown has been candid about her mental health struggles in the past, but she’s only recently opened up about just how severe and drawn-out her panic attacks can be. During her July 13 appearance on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, Brown revealed that her worst anxiety experience caused her to “shut down” for several months. And she was only able to recover from the traumatic situation by visiting a temple in Japan.
"One of my longest cycles (of anxiety) must have been three months. I got chased by somebody in a place and it sent me in a three-month-long anxiety panic attack," Brown said. "I got chased by these people and it was a really traumatizing, I would say, 20 minutes. It was very, very intense and very scary. After the 20 minutes, I got into an elevator, I faced the corner of the wall and I was just like... I actually feel like I shut down and shut down for three months. In that moment, something switched off in my mind."
Her anxiety at that time was so bad, it manifested in a lot of physical illnesses, including pneumonia and strep. Thankfully, Brown was able to find much-needed relief during a trip to Kyoto, Japan with her husband Jake Bongiovi.
“I went to Japan and I sat with these monks and it was the most amazing experience,” Brown said. “I'm getting teary eyed talking about it, but it took me out of the cycle. I needed it.”
Brown described how she arrived in the country feeling “broken,” and one monk in particular encouraged her to meditate. “This one amazing gentleman who was like just so calm and almost felt like he saw me,” Brown said. “I was in the height of my anxiety at this point, it was like he knew that I was kind of broken. He was like, ‘We need to meditate.’”
“It was amazing. I will never forget the feeling,” Brown said. “Finally, peace in my heart. And my husband literally said, ‘You radiated this light after.’”
