Sandra Bullock openly about fighting PTSD

Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock has spoken out about the ‘extreme anxiety’ and PTSD she suffered from after having to hide in a closet during a 2014 robbery of her home. She admitted that the matter had become ‘so serious that she thought she would die if she did not ask for help’.

The 57-year-old actress was a guest on the latest episode of "Red Table Talk", hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith, and Adrienne Banfield-Norris, and told all about her horrific experience and its consequences on the actress' health.

Bullock explained that the burglary came after a series of stressful events, and it was stress that took its toll so the actress would just suddenly start sobbing. After that, she realized that she needed to seek professional help, and for that reason, she tried the psychotherapeutic method Desensitization and Reprocessing with Eye Movements (EMDR), which can sometimes solve long-term and difficult problems in several therapeutic meetings.

"My house was broken into while I was in it. I hid in the closet and said to myself - this is not going to end well. I'm in the closet, it won't help me."

According to court documents, Bullock was frightened around 1 a.m. on June 8, 2014, after hearing a loud bang in her own home. When she got up to lock her bedroom door, the actress saw Joshua Corbett standing in the hallway dressed in dark clothes.

She didn't know it at the time, but Joshua Corbett lurked in front of her door for days, writing everything about his Oscar-winning obsession in a notebook. He jumped over her fence and rang the doorbell for 10 to 15 minutes before entering her home through the door of one room.

Bullock managed to slam the door and lock it before reporting the intruder to the police. When police arrived, Corbett started screaming, "Sandy, I'm sorry. Please don't file a lawsuit."

In an interview, the actress revealed that she was glad that her adopted son Louis was not at home that night. "It was one of those nights when Louis was not with me. That night our nanny said she would take him to her apartment down the street because I wasn't home until late," the actress recalled.

She also admitted that she has never been home alone since that day. It was this incident that took its toll on the famous actress.

"I was looking at my body, it broke. It didn't react well to what was happening," she admitted. "Louis had an epileptic grand mal seizure. He had a high fever, I thought he died," she added.

Two days later I went to the Oscars, and a day later I was bitten by a poisonous spider. My hair started to fall out. I have bald spots everywhere from alopecia (hair loss, op.a.). I thought - what the hell is going on ?! When that burglary happened, I had to tell myself - if I don’t get out of this, I’m going to die, ”the shocked actress said.

She also said she knew to sit at her home in New Orleans and read ‘Architectural Digest’, and as she turned each page she would unconsciously let out a heavy sigh. "I had anxiety because I was sitting where I wanted to be, doing exactly what I wanted to do, and I still felt extreme anxiety. After that, I went to therapy, and those things had to stop," the actress said, adding: "I didn't understand what is PTSD. I would look left rather than right out of my car and start sobbing. I thought to myself, I am a single parent and this child will absorb nothing but fear, trauma, and shame from me, at the most important moment of his life. I did not want to shift that burden on my beautiful child. I asked for advice and I will ask for it again and I learned to ask for help.

Sandra Bullock admitted that her children, 11-year-old Louis and 8-year-old Laila, are the reason why she is much better today. Corbett, who broke into her home, was arrested and convicted.

When he was arrested, police found him with a two-page letter expressing his love for Bullock, which he had apparently written the day before, 20 hours before his arrest. It is clear from the letter that Corbett observed the actress, commenting on her departures and arrivals. "You could have me today, but you chose other people instead of me. I will be close, as you know. Always and forever, love, your husband," the letter said.

In 2017, he was released from the mental health institution where he was staying, and he was permanently banned from approaching the famous actress. In May 2018, he killed himself after a five-hour clash with the police. “The system let him down,” the actress concluded.