Kristen Bell is opening up about a unique tactic she has used to help treat her depression. The 40-year-old actress, who has been open about her struggles with anxiety and depression in the past, spoke about trying out psychedelic drugs as a form of treatment.
In a new podcast interview with Hypochondriactor, Bell talks to Sean Hayes and Dr. Priyanka Wali about trying out the different treatment after reading Michael Pollan’s book, How to Change Your Mind.
In the book, Pollan discusses the effects of LSD and psilocybin on the brain.
“There are aspects to those two particular drugs that the places you can go in your brain are much deeper and more healing than anything else,” Bell said on the podcast, which features a disclaimer that the hosts and the guests are not providing medical advice to listeners. She added that the book made her “really interested in doing mushrooms.”
Talking about her habits with substances, Bell said, “I don’t even drink. I discovered wine last year and I’ll twice a month have it, but I didn’t drink for 20 years of my life, from the time I turned 21.”
She also shared how her husband, Dax Shepard, who has been open about his own journey with sobriety, helped her during the trip.
“I am very lucky to be married to an ex-drug addict… not only did he know where to get the mushrooms, he got that really nice, quality, organic, set and setting, beautiful mushroom,” she said of Shepard who went public with his relapse last September. “And then he babysat me.”
Bell said the trip took place for her birthday last July.
“I said, ‘I really would like to experience this. And I don’t want to, I’m not going to party with it, but I want to know what this feels like,'” Bell recalled telling Shepard. “‘And I want to talk while I’m doing it, and I want you to talk to me.’ And he took me on a walk around the neighborhood and it was so lovely.”
As for her reaction to the trip, Bell recalled being “so enamored with my own body.”
She noted that the experience was by no means a cure for depression, saying she still experiences it “in waves.”
“My waves are never suicidal or anything,” Bell, who is still on medication for depression, explained. “So I’m very lucky because that does happen to people.”
The Good Place star has previously opened up about smoking weed around Shepard.
“[He understands] he lost his privilege with [drugs] because he can’t handle it; his brain doesn’t have the chemistry to handle it,” Bell said in 2018.
Shepard relapsed on prescription medication last year after 16 years of sobriety. For more on his sobriety journey, watch the clip below
