Healing Your Childhood Wounds With Actress Chrissy Metz

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Meet Chrissy Metz

Chrissy Metz is an American actress and singer. She’s best known for her role as Kate Pearson on the TV series, "This Is Us." She’s been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and she’s won two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Chrissy’s 2018 book, "This Is Me," became a number-one New York Times bestseller. In it, she describes her life growing up, the lessons she’s learned along the way, and her tips for living your best life. 

Why I Wanted to Interview Chrissy

I don't watch much TV these days, but I do watch "This Is Us." The show uses flashbacks to show our childhood experiences impact us as adults. 

Like us, the characters in the show are impacted by both big events (like losing a parent) and seemingly small events (like being teased). It shows how the events we go through leave an imprint on us—whether positive or negative.

I heard Chrissy talk about her real-life struggles—some of which are similar to what her character Kate endures. Chrissy became open about her battle with anxiety a few years ago. So I read her book and was fascinated to learn about her childhood experiences. 

I wanted to interview her on the podcast to hear more about how she's connected the dots between her childhood and adulthood (similar to how the show does for its characters).

Chrissy’s Mental Health Journey

When Chrissy was 30, she thought she was having a heart attack. She went to the emergency room and she learned she was having a panic attack. 

She’s since learned a lot about mental health. She has done a lot of work on addressing difficult parts of her childhood and she’s proactive about improving her mental health with strategies like gratitude.

She’s also open about the fact that she’s gone to therapy. She says therapy has helped her better understand herself.

Standouts From the Episode

• How Chrissy landed her first big role
• What it was like to get invited to have lunch with Oprah
• How our parents' unresolved issues often show up in us
• Chrissy's experience with grief when her estranged father passed away
• Why she often felt like an outcast as a child
• How she came to forgive her step-father
• What she learned from being rejected by the judges of "American Idol"
• How she practices gratitude every day

What Chrissy Learned About Mental Health

Chrissy learned that her parents’ likely did the best they could with what they had. And their unresolved issues impacted the way she was raised. 

She has learned a lot about herself, her self-worth, and the steps she can take every day to address her well-being.

She shares a lot of those tips in her book, and she is now confident that if those strategies work for her, they can work for other people too. 

More About the Podcast

The Verywell Mind Podcast is available across all streaming platforms. If you like the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Reviews and ratings are a great way to encourage other people to listen and help them prioritize their mental health too.

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