Actress Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed that she recently came to realize that she suffers from anxiety.
In a recent episode of “Red Table Talk,” Jada mentioned that she used to bite her fingernails and chew her cuticles. However, she didn’t connect these habits to anxiety until she was raising her daughter.
The 50-year-old Pinkett Smith disclosed that dealing with and learning about her daughter’s anxiety helped her recognize her own anxiety.
She mentioned that reevaluating her own behavior, the behavior of her mother, and her life experiences made her realize, “Oh, well of course I probably have some anxiety.”
In response, her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, 68, said, “I never identified it as anxiety.”
Willow Smith, 21, also shared during the episode, “Recently, we had a talk, and she was like, ‘I never knew that I actually experienced anxiety.’ She was pushing it down for so many years, like she had no idea.”
Willow added that her conversation with her mother also led her to “forgive” her for downplaying her anxiety throughout her childhood. “I had to forgive her a little bit for being like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah … I get it, but it’s really not that bad.’”
“It was rough,” Smith told guest Ireland Baldwin, 26. “I feel like when I was growing up, she didn’t understand my anxiety. Because she, growing up, had seen her friends die … she had been through so much stuff that my issues, to her, kind of felt like … [smaller].”
Smith mentioned that her anxiety would have her screaming, crying, and shaking on the floor, which would “trigger” her mother. Pinkett Smith said that she eventually came to reassess her family and their behaviors and recognize a “cycle of generational anxiety.”
The family discussion about their recent emotional revelations aired after dad Will Smith, 53, was spotted in India following his wildly controversial Oscars slap. It’s unclear when the episode was filmed, but “Red Table Talk” previously acknowledged the incident and said it will discuss the matter in the future.