Chris Evans and his struggle with anxiety

Chris Evans is a 39 years old, male actor, famous for his role as Captain America in Marvel Cinematic Universe. His character, Steve Rogers (Captain America), showcases the ideal American soldier with an ironclad will. He is portrayed as a person who has it all together and can deal with anything thrown his way with ease. Taking a closer look at most movies’ protagonists, we see that characteristics that make one socially “desirable” are their (the protagonists’) most vital attributes.

Even if we get out of the fictional world, we see that we tend to assume mental well-being, especially in the case of celebrities. We tend to assume that they have “everything”; in this article, we will look closely at a man who has it all yet struggles. This is what we need to understand mental health issues and disorders. They are not something that sees a person’s social status or their resources just like physical health concerns do not look at a rich person and think “Oh they have enough money to recover from me so let’s not infect them”. Health issues can affect everyone and anyone at any point in time. What matters is whether we have each other’s back or not; whether we got our own back or not. 

The first experience

The first time Chris Evans started experiencing high anxiety was in 2007. By 2010 while he was filming an indie movie called ‘Puncture’ his condition worsened to the extent that he began to get mini panic attacks on set and began questioning whether acting was the right choice for him or not. At that time, he was unsure whether he was as healthy as he was supposed to be feeling.

When Evans was first offered the role of Captain America, he refused it. He believed that six movies were too big a commitment to make at the time. Despite repeatedly getting the very offer with more money involved each time he did not seem to budge. All his friends and family advised him to take the role, but the conflict in him was tremendous. Thus,  he sought out professional help. In the process of taking therapy, Evans’ perspective changed to a considerable extent. He started to wonder that maybe the things he was afraid of were the very things he actually needed to grow further in life. Upon reminiscing his decision, he said “It was the best decision I’ve ever made, and I really owe that to (Marvel chief) Kevin Feige for being persistent and helping me avoid making a giant mistake… To be honest, all the things that I feared never really came to fruition.”  

The road to betterment

When talking about his coping mechanisms Evans mentioned how the golden word for him was “shh”, “The moments I’ve felt my best are those moments when I’ve been able to pull that plug and say, ‘Chris, shh shh shh.’ It’s not quitting, giving up, it’s not washing your hands of the thought. It’s rising above it. It’s operating on a separate plane.”

Evans believes that the brain makes a lot of noise, but it does not necessarily define who we actually are. Sometimes we must disassociate from what we think we are and try to reach out to who we are or who we want to be. Everybody’s journey is different, and from Chris Evans, we learn that no matter how a person may appear to us we must take a minute and be considerate as much as possible towards others and towards ourselves too. There is no shame in seeking help and admitting that one is seeking help, Captain America takes help too.

Written by Harshita