Jesse Eisenberg says fatherhood helped his anxiety by making him 'worry about things that are real'
By SAMEER SURI
PUBLISHED: 14:18 EDT, 28 September 2019
He has been candid about his mental health issues.
And Jesse Eisenberg shared that becoming a father two years ago has helped his anxiety by making him 'worry about things that are real.'
The 35-year-old discussed the matter onstage at a Child Mind Institute event in New York on Thursday with the organization's president Harold Koplewicz.
'To me, there's nothing better for one's mental health than to worry about things that are real, and when you have a child, you can only worry about something that's real.'
Jesse shared: 'I resist all of the temptations I have to make [my son] neurotic, because I know it's not helpful. I know that what might feel good in the moment of consoling a kid who appears nervous may be detrimental in the long term.'
He and his wife Anna Strout married in 2017 after an on-off romance stretching back to 2002, and they share a two-year-old son called Banner.
Jesse, who also suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder, said at Thursday's event that he was 11 when he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
He has worked with the Child Mind Institute before, starring in a 2017 video for their #MyYoungerSelf initiative called 链接.
Jesse shared that: 'I would probably tell myself two things. One is that it's not the worst thing in the world to have those feelings, even though it might feel like the worst thing in the world. It might feel like this kind of horror is permanent and that almost anything else would be better than this feeling.'
He added: 'But actually, having that anxiety might be indicative of other kind of, you know, beneficial, positive characteristics like sensitivity to the world or an empathy or maybe a kind of interesting or unusual perception of life that could benefit you over the long term.'
The Social Network star continued: 'I think the other thing I would tell myself is to try to get involved with kind of charitable outreach earlier. I've worked with like people with terminal illnesses and volunteered at a domestic violence shelter.
'And you realize very quickly that other people have bigger problems than you, and it kind of puts your life in perspective in a healthy way, and it also gets you out of your own kind of bad, cyclical thinking patterns. And of course, more importantly, it's helping somebody else.'
Jesse is currently awaiting the release of Zombieland: Double Tap, a sequel to his acclaimed 2009 horror comedy Zombieland.
The follow-up movie reunites him with his original co-stars Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin, as well as adding new faces to the franchise like Rosario Dawson, Zoey Deutch, Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch.