'Full House' star Andrea Barber reveals struggle with anxiety, depression in new memoir
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Andrea Barber is opening up about her struggles with anxiety and depression.
In her new memoir “Full Circle: From Hollywood to Real Life and Back Again,” the “Full House” star talks about becoming a mother, returning to Hollywood and her mental health struggles.
“I’ve been on television for over thirty-five years, and I still feel uncomfortable calling myself a ‘celebrity,'” Barber writes in her new memoir, which hit shelves on Tuesday.
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“I am an introverted, anxious, quiet person who plays a very extroverted, confident, loud character on television. And often, during the eight-year run of ‘Full House,’ I would go to the bathroom before tapings to vomit,” Barber admitted.
“At the time, I thought getting sick before performing was something everyone did,” she noted.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I didn’t realize that these were the first signs of a lifelong battle with anxiety and depression, something I would hate about myself for years to come.”
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In an interview with USA Today, Barber opened up about revealing her mental illness to her family.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It was several months of this long slow spiral of my vomiting every morning at 3 a.m. getting worse and worse and taking longer and longer to get out of bed. And I slowly stopped eating.
"It was when I made that 5 a.m. phone call to my dad and said, 'I need you to come pick me up. I don't know how I am going to get through the next minute of this day, much less the whole day,’” Barber continued.
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Barber hopes that her book will inspire others to come forward about their struggles, stating, "I'm hoping to create a culture of sharing stories, and it's not just sharing a hashtag. It's more important when you're ready to share your own personal story.
“Writing my story was very cathartic, but sharing my story – even a glimpse – people respond. And it creates this culture of openness and this tribe of people with this shared experience and shared pain that we're all in this together and we can heal,” she concluded.