Maisie Williams recently opened up about going through a “dark period” in her life where she suffered from depression and hated herself.
The 22-year-old “Game of Thrones” star sat down for a chat with British TV presenter Fearne Cotton for her “Happy Place” podcast. Maisie revealed she was trying to “break free” from the negativity and feelings of self-doubt that had been plaguing her for years.
“I went through a huge period of my life where I’d tell myself every day that I hated myself,” Maisie revealed. “It got to a point where I’d be in a conversation with my friends and my mind would running and running, and I’d be thinking about all the stupid things I’ve said in my life and it would just race and race… We’d be talking and I’d be like ‘I hate myself’.
“When I starting digging in and figuring out why I said those things, actually it was nothing to do with myself. So many of these problems are really linked to things in your past, as soon as you start digging and start asking yourself bigger questions than: Why do I hate myself? It’s more: Why do you make yourself feel this way?”
The British actress admitted she’s come out of her depression but she’s scared about slipping back into that mindset, so she is currently working on letting “sadness wash over her without it consuming her”.
Maisie, who plays Arya Stark in the hit HBO series, says social media doesn’t help when she’s struggling with self-doubt. She found it difficult to ignore the plethora of negative comments people were making about her online.
“It got to me a lot because there’s just a constant feed in your back pocket of what people think of you,” she said. “It’s impossible to turn a blind eye.
“When I do feel myself going down a rabbit hole, it gets to a point where you’re almost craving something negative so you can sit in a hole of sadness. It’s really bizarre the way that it starts to consume you.”
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