HOME TOWN’s Erin Napier Shares Candid Post About Physical and Mental Health Struggle
By Movieguide® Staff
HOME TOWN star Erin Napier recently shared a post on Instagram about her struggle with mental and physical health.
Napier shared photos from hospital visits in 2014 for a perforated appendix in the candid post. According to the post, Napier continues to struggle with negative symptoms eight years later.
“This time of year, I feel the anniversary of illness so acutely,” she captioned the series of throwback photos. “These hospital photos were taken in 2014, at the end of my 10 year illness from (unknowingly) a perforated appendix. I wrote about that decade in our book, Make Something Good Today, and for a long time thought I had put that all to bed with that final surgery.
“My appendix has been gone along with the physical suffering for 8 years now, but I’ve been learning through conversation with my friend who is a therapist that it left some deep ruts in my neuro pathways that have left me with an extreme fear and preoccupation with sickness, nausea in particular, ever since,” she added. “My brain, without my permission, sets off on a fight or flight mission to save my life, when my life is not in any danger at all. Panic attacks and spiraling thoughts come rushing in. I’m relieved at least to have connected all these dots in recent months, brought to the surface by the constant upheaval and dread that came with living in a pandemic.”
Napier took a moment to encourage others who may struggle with hidden illnesses or pain.
“This is something you don’t know about me, but I don’t mind if you do. It’s not bad or good, it’s just part of my weird brain and I’m trying to untangle it every day, even as you may see happy news and posts from me. That’s everyone though, isn’t it?” she said. “We’ve all got our personal struggles. But isn’t it so nice to have this place for editing the hard parts out? Like seeing the people you love most gathered around your hospital bed, there’s always a light in the darkness.”
Actress Drew Barrymore, who Napier recently met and called her childhood hero, offered an encouraging comment on the post.
“I love you @erinapier and THIS DOES HELP TO KNOW and I believe we are lucky to have a window into you that will also help others!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for sharing,” she wrote. “Ps rely on us right back. Everyone loves you!!!!”
Read More: Why Erin Napier Credits Drew Barrymore for Her Marriage to Ben
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