Gisele Bündchen. James Devaney/GC Images
Gisele Bündchen is reflecting on her “long journey” to overcoming “severe” depression and anxiety when she was younger.
“I had no idea that it was correlated with my lifestyle, and food was a big part of it,” the supermodel, 43, said while promoting her new cookbook, Nourish, on the Thursday, March 21, episode of The View.
Bündchen went on to explain that although she lived an accelerated lifestyle as a teen — she emancipated from her parents at age 14 to pursue modeling and was “traveling the world” by age 15 — it wasn’t until her early twenties that she began to experience debilitating panic attacks.
“I didn’t know what to do,” she continued. “One of the worst things about panic attacks is the intense fear that you’ll have another one.”
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Panic attacks are “sudden, intense feelings of fear that cause physical symptoms like a racing heart, fast breathing and sweating” and “may feel like you’re having a heart attack,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. They are typically treated with therapy, medication or a combination of both, and differ from anxiety attacks in the sense that they come on suddenly.
“I wanted to feel better … so I found this amazing naturopath and he said to me, ‘Gisele, we have to change your diet.’ And I was like, ‘Diet, what does that have to do with panic attacks?’ And he’s like, ‘No, it has everything to do with it,’” Bündchen explained. “I told him about my day. I drink, I smoke, I have coffee — and he said ‘Listen … stop right there.’ He says, ‘You’re not sleeping. You’re in different time zones all the time. You’re eating, like, terrible all day.’”
Bündchen’s naturopath essentially prescribed her a regimen of three things: changing her diet, getting “at least eight hours of sleep” and exercising daily — a lifestyle change that ultimately helped her mental health and overall well-being.
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“After having a year and a half of what I would say [was] one of the worst times in my life, everything changed,” she added. “I became a different person. I started practicing meditation. I started practicing yoga. I started practicing breath work. It was a long journey.”
Though some followers were surprised last year when Bündchen announced she was releasing a cookbook, the former Victoria’s Secret model has been sharing recipes and healthy lifestyle tips on social media for some time.
Nourish: Simple Recipes to Empower Your Body and Feed Your Soul hits bookshelves on Tuesday, March 26.