Actress Kim Basinger has revealed that she dealt with a terrible bout of agoraphobia that affected her life for years.
It got so bad that she said had to relearn how to drive -- in L.A. no less.
“I had to relearn to drive,” Basinger, 68, explained on Red Table Talk, “and for many years I would not go through the tunnels at Malibu.”
As the New York Post reported, the Mayo Clinic defines agoraphobia as “a type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and avoid places or situations that might cause you to panic and make you feel trapped, helpless, or embarrassed.” The disorder often develops after experiencing some panic attacks.
According to People -- who obtained a preview of the interview -- Basinger said “everything used to make me nervous, like the glass [sliding] to open the door, or ‘Where do I step to open the door?’ Everything became a big job to figure out how to do it.”
Basinger, who starred in 1989’s “Batman,” shared that the condition that leads one to being afraid to interact with the outside world affected her so much that she “wouldn’t leave the house.” She continued, noting that she “would no longer go to dinner.”
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The "L.A. Confidential" star further said she lived “with a dry mouth all the time” and that she was shaky a lot. “You’re just so exhausted all the time.”
This may explain why, outside of a few shorts and small roles, Basinger's last feature film appearance was in 2017’s “Fifty Shades Darker.”
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The interview is the first joint interview with her daughter, model Ireland Baldwin, 26, from her marriage to ex, Alec Baldwin.
Baldwin also got personal in the interview, delving into her battle with substance abuse. Explaining that, “I have a lot of alcoholism and drug addiction in my family,” she admitted that she self-medicated with Xanax and drank a lot in the past.
“I just became this different person,” said Baldwin. “I was emaciated in every way, I was lifeless.” The model shared that it extended to her family life too, revealing that she didn’t talk to her parents for about a year. "I saw them here and there," she said, "but I was so ashamed of what I had become and how I was living."
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