LOS ANGELES, California — Hollywood actor Gwyneth Paltrow has shared her unconventional approach to managing anxiety, revealing that shouting at bushes is one method she finds surprisingly helpful.
Paltrow addressed mental health during a recent Ask Me Anything session on her Instagram Stories, responding to a fan who asked how she copes with anxiety.
“I can’t really avoid anxiety, but I try to temper it with remembering things I am grateful for, breathing deeply, going for a walk, and shouting at the bushes (it helps) and being good to myself,” she said.
The actor also spoke candidly about burnout and overfunctioning when asked how she avoids them.
“I have avoided neither. I’m over functioned and burnt out, but I’m trying to get a little bit better this year at that and really prioritizing sleep and boundaries around working and not working, but I have some work to do,” she said.
Paltrow has previously discussed her mental health challenges on her goop podcast. In a November 2025 episode, she said she believes she has “a bit of ADD” and can easily get pulled in multiple directions, adding that she wants to feel more grounded throughout the day.
The actor said negative work-related communication can have an outsized emotional impact on her and believes that years in the public eye have affected her nervous system.
“I’ve lived a very intense life in the public eye for a really, really long time. And so I think whenever we’re at the mercy of people’s opinions and all the energy behind the opinions — I’m very sensitive, as most of us are — so I feel that and it kind of frays my nervous system,” she said.
Paltrow also linked her recent anxiety to hormonal changes, saying it is something she is experiencing for the first time in her life.
“I think also my hormonal phase of life, I have a lot of anxiety for the very first time in my life, which is just a symptom of hormonal changes,” she said.
“I think it’s an estrogen dominance thing. It makes you really anxious … So part of it is physiological, part of it is psychological, part of it’s emotional and part of it’s public life.”
She added that she is actively working on her mental health with the support of therapists, including one who specializes in the nervous system.
The actor said she also finds healing and emotional support through her family, particularly her children and her husband. (Source: IANS)
