The Flash's Grant Gustin Shares His Lifelong Experience With Anxiety and Depression

Grant Gustin spoke of experiencing anxiety as a young kid and how his self-inflicted pressure affected him as an actor.

By Samantha Schnurr Apr 29, 2020 8:03 PMTags
Watch: Grant Gustin & Candice Patton Talk "The Flash" 100th Episode

Grant Gustin understands what it's like to deal with anxiety and depression. 

As he shared on Michael Rosenbaum's Inside of You podcast, he's been experiencing it practically his entire life. "Since probably 4 or 5, I've dealt with anxiety, depression," the now-30-year-old actor said. 

The star, who has been bringing The Flash to life on the small screen since 2013, recalled experiencing "weird, anxious-type dreams" as a young kid and explained that personal things had surfaced when he and his wife participated in couples therapy before they got married. 

"I knew I had always dealt with anxiety, but getting pinpointed ideas about where things started and why you were feeling that way," he said. "Anxiety is ever-present in my life, for sure."

The longtime actor also spoke of putting pressure on himself, acknowledging, "I've come a long way with taking a little pressure off myself...I've always been really hard on myself and I still am, but I put way too much pressure on myself early on and got in my way a lot and I think it shows, in my opinion at least, in the work, like how wound up I was and how focused I was on getting it right. It gets in your way for sure."

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Celebs Open About Their Anxiety

Gustin also explained how he is forthcoming about his stresses and not as good at listening while his wife, Andrea Thoma, is less likely to offer up her concerns and needs him to talk to her to discuss them. "In our relationship, that's been huge and it's something that I'll probably be working on until the day I die, honestly," the star said. 

The actor also spoke of his audition anxiety and how anxiety dictates his appetite. "I can't eat the morning before Comic-Con. When I'm really nervous, I don't eat during the day. It's really bad," he shared. "It's one of the reasons I'm so thin. Anxiety rules my stomach."