Amanda Seyfried Opens Up About Her Mental Health Diagnosis and Why She Still Takes Medication

Amanda Seyfried is opening up about her long journey with obsessive-compulsive disorder and how it still shapes her life today.

In a recent interview with Vogue, published on January 8, the actress shared that she was diagnosed with OCD when she was just 19 years old. At the time, her symptoms were severe and overwhelming. She was living in Marina del Rey while filming Big Love when things became hard to manage.

Seyfried said her mother temporarily left her job in Pennsylvania to stay with her and help her get through that period. Doctors ran brain scans, and that led to her starting medication, which she still takes every day.

“I got my brain scans, and that’s when I got on medication — which to this day, I’m on every night,” she told Vogue.

Living with OCD also changed how she handled life as a young actress. She explained that rejection in Hollywood never bothered her much, but she had to be careful about situations that could make her symptoms worse. Drinking alcohol, staying out late, or using drugs were things she avoided.

She admitted that her lifestyle looked very different from many people her age in the industry. “I would make plans and then just not go,” she said with a laugh, adding that her condition played a role in those choices. “I gotta give credit to my OCD.”

This is not the first time Seyfried has spoken openly about her diagnosis. In a 2016 interview with Allure, she talked about staying on her medication long-term and why she has no plans to stop.

“I’m on Lexapro, and I’ll never get off of it,” she said at the time. “I don’t see the point of getting off of it. Whether it’s placebo or not, I don’t want to risk it.”

She also addressed the stigma around mental health treatment. “A mental illness is a thing that people cast in a different category,” she said, explaining that she believes it should be treated like any other medical condition. “If you can treat it, you treat it.”

By speaking openly, Seyfried continues to highlight how common mental health struggles are and why taking care of them should never be a source of shame.