Ida Mae Astute/ABCAmanda Knox is speaking out about spending four years in an Italian prison after being convicted of murdering her roommate in Italy.
"When [Meredith Kerscher] was murdered and I was arrested, it was so shocking," the 25-year-old Seattle native tells People magazine. "It was paralyzing. Everything toppled."
Knox was originally sentenced to 26 years in prison, but her conviction was overturned on appeal in 2011. Hayden Panetierre played her in the Lifetime movie Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy.
Although she has since returned to Seattle to go back to school, Knox admits that what happened still haunts her and affects her everyday life.
"Things creep up on me and all of a sudden I'm overwhelmed by the feeling of helplessness and that desperation and fear to even hope," she says. "Just that can make my heart race and makes me paralyzed until I can breathe it away."
Knox isn't yet able to put all of this behind her. It was revealed in March that she has been ordered by Italy's Supreme Court to stand trial again for the 2007 murder.
"No matter what happens, my family and I will face this continuing legal battle as we always have, confident in the truth and with our heads held high in the face of wrongful accusations and unreasonable adversity," she said of the news.
Knox has written a memoir, Waiting to Be Heard, that will be out April 30.