Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones reveals struggle with hypochondria and anxiety
Daisy Edgar-Jones has detailed her struggle with hypochondria, explaining it is one of the ways her anxiety manifests itself.
The Normal People star has also spoken about self-doubt, in relation to auditioning for acting roles and missing out on parts she really wanted.
Speaking on the podcast How to Fail with Elizabeth Day, the actress said she felt particularly alone when her friends went off the university and she did not, having chosen to pursue her acting career instead.
“I did apply to a few places and got in, but I’d had an agent since I was 16, so I thought I’d give it a year to see if I could maybe get something,” the 22-year-old said.
“I didn’t get work. I auditioned and I got close and I didn’t get anything. I found that very anxiety making and I really struggled for a while.
“I did think, ‘Gosh, am I missing out on life experience?’ and so I would get quite anxious,” she said.
Edgar-Jones went on to explain that her anxiety manifests itself in different ways.
“When I feel anxious it comes out in different ways from me,” she said. “One of the ways is that I struggle with hypochondria. I’m a bit of a hypochondriac.”
“It comes out in a sort of need to control. If I see a rash for example, if I really overthink that and Google the heck out of it then I’m controlling it in some way.
“If I find out that it’s something really sinister, I’ve caught it before it could potentially become something worse.”
Edgar-Jones added that she sometimes becomes obsessed with potential health ailments, telling a story about how she convinced herself that she had ‘hyper-hydration’ because she had drunk a large bottle of water.
Edgar-Jones found success in the BBC Three programme Normal People, based on the novel by Sally Rooney, in which she plays Marianne.
The actress added that she has found ways to manage her anxiety.
“I can laugh about it now, and I have found ways to deal with it, which is really good,” she said.
She added she doesn’t let herself Google health conditions anymore: “If I believe that it's irrational thought, then I'll panic myself. But if I make sure I realise it isn't, then it's fine.”
