‘Monster on shoulder’ Emma Stone on the anxiety that ‘crushes’ her

In a move which is sure to strike a chord with millions, Emma Stone has opened up about the anxiety she has suffered since childhood.

Speaking to the Rolling Stone, the popular actress attempted to explain the myriad of emotions she would endure as a child.

"When I was about seven, I was convinced the house was burning down. I could sense it. Not a hallucination, just a tightening in my chest, feeling I couldn't breathe, like the world was going to end. There were some flare-ups like that, but my anxiety was constant," she recalled.

"I would ask my mom a hundred times how the day was gonna lay out. What time was she gonna drop me off? Where was she gonna be? What would happen at lunch?"

The actress, who is up for a Golden Globe, revealed that the condition eventually became debilitating, adding: "At a certain point, I couldn't go to friends' houses anymore–I could barely get out the door to school."

The 28-year-old provided readers with her own coping mechanisms by explaining she penned a manuscript that helps her deal with the issue.

"I wrote this book called I Am Bigger Than My Anxiety that I still have: I drew a little green monster on my shoulder that speaks to me in my ear and tells me all these things that aren't true."

"And every time I listen to it, it grows bigger. If I listen to it enough, it crushes me," she explains."But if I turn my head and keep doing what I'm doing—let it speak to me, but don't give it the credit it needs- then it shrinks down and fades away."

Emma also used acting and improv as a coping mechanism, saying: "You have to be present in improv, and that's the antithesis of anxiety."