Katherine Heigl made her appearance on the big screen as a child actor in a television advertisement for Cheerios. Heigl was signed by Wilhelmina Models when she was nine and initially started as a model for Sears and Lord & Taylor catalogs where she was paid $75 per hour. Heigl has since continued being in front of the camera and slowly graduated to acting in TV series and movies as well. Her big break came in the form of ABC's hit medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Unfortunately, as is the case with a lot of child actors, being in the spotlight from a very early age, took a toll on Heigl a bit later on in life.
Katherine Heigl Credits Medication for Saving Her Life and Curing Her Depression
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What Caused It?
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Heigl made her big break as Dr. Izzie Stevens on Grey's Anatomy. Due to the increased popularity of the show, the attention on Heigl as well as her fellow co-stars began to hit unprecedented levels. The 44-year-old actress describes herself as a people pleaser who loved the attention she got for the good work she did on the show. However, when reports started to emerge that she was 'difficult to work with' all of the positive attention she was getting turned awry which ultimately forced her to go into a rabbit hole.
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Heigl Shares Her Struggles
In a recent interview, the 44-year-old actress opened up about depression and mental health. The former child actress stated that reading all the negative press that was written about her and festering on it affected her immensely. She said, "Being suddenly kind of defined by public opinion was very new. And it was very positive at first, so it felt really good … And then it turned."
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Crippling Anxiety
Heigl continued, "It was really hard for me to have public opinions sway so far the other direction, and I wasn’t grounded or stable in my own self enough to not believe them myself. So I spent a lot of time in my early 30’s worried that maybe they were right and I was this kind of person. But then defending myself, in my own mind, it’s like that horrible neuroses and anxiety."
Medication Saved Her Life
The mother of three went on to reveal that she was placed on medication for depression. She was reportedly prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) which she credits for saving her life and helping her get back to a sense of normalcy.
