Natalia Grace Reveals Struggles with Anxiety, ADHD and PTSD After Panic Attack: 'It Explodes' (Exclusive)

Natalia Grace's emotions appear to shift from anxiety, to panic, to fear. Her eyes well with tears that fog her black-rimmed glasses. Moments later, the 21-year-old briefly locks herself in the bathroom of a rented warehouse in New York in Oct. 2024. She emerges shouting: “Everyone get out,” but soon calms herself down while drying her eyes.

"I don't want to be filmed," she admits — the cameras still rolling and capturing the last footage of The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter airing Jan. 6 and 7 on ID and Max. "I don't like all the extra camera attention and being on a TV show," Natalia adds. "I'm more of the kind of girl that will sit on a porch swing with a book and a hot chocolate or a coffee in the morning. "

In our latest PEOPLE cover story, we dive further into Natalia's saga as she explains herself — sometimes even cheerful and laughing — while expanding on her arduous journey into adulthood.

Related: Natalia Grace Speaks Out in Rare Interview — and Defends Herself Against Allegations of Violence: ‘I'm Not a Liar' (Exclusive)

As her crew exits the set, she exhales. “I just had an anxiety attack,” she whispers, smiling faintly. Natalia suffers from situational and generalized anxiety, ADHD and PTSD. “I have anxiety all the way to the roof,” she says. “It’s definitely hard to deal with. I’m the type of person that hides it until I get too overwhelmed, and it explodes.”

But it’s understandable, given her surreal, unnerving tale — one much stranger than fiction — that’s garnered national attention since 2019. As a Ukrainian-born orphan with rare dwarfism condition Diastrophic Dysplasia, she was adopted by Indiana couple Michael and Kristine Barnett in 2010 at age 6. Soon after, the couple became suspicious of her age, leading to accusations that she was an adult merely posing as a child — an alleged "sociopath" with sinister intentions. Eventually, the couple legally changed Natalia’s age from 8 to 22 years old.

Related: All About Kristine Barnett, Natalia Grace's Former Adoptive Mom Who Now Calls Her 'Sociopath'

In 2013 Natalia’s parents moved her into apartments in Westfield and Lafayette, Ind., leaving her to live alone as the rest of the family —including their three biological sons—moved to Canada and cut off contact with her. After a five-year investigation, they faced multiple neglect charges and have since divorced. Yet in 2022, Michael was found not guilty on all four charges, and his ex-wife’s case was dropped the following year. “They might as well have gotten away with murder,” Natalia says, scoffing. “They should not have.” The Barnetts could not be reached for contact.

Related: Natalia Grace Docuseries Ends with Shocking New Allegation — Watch the Jaw-Dropping Final Moments

At the time, the couple alleged Natalia tried to poison Kristine’s coffee, attempted to drag her toward an electric fence, placed clear thumbtacks face-up on the stairs to injure them and even tried to kill them. One night, they claimed she stood at the foot of their bed holding a sharp knife. An impossibility, Natalia says to PEOPLE, given her poor grip and inability to see over their bed frame because of her stature: “I feel like I have to defend myself and be like, ‘Do I look like somebody that could push someone twice my size into a fence? Do I look like I could even grip a knife?’”

Related: Natalia Grace Speaks Out in Rare Interview — and Defends Herself Against Allegations of Violence: ‘I'm Not a Liar' (Exclusive)

The incident resulted in Natalia being committed to Larue Carter, an Indiana State Mental Hospital, in June of 2012. While there, she says on the show she was locked in a room and injected with sedatives. After a few weeks, she was sent to live in a halfway house. She later detailed a slew of alleged abuses at the hands of her adoptive mother, including being pepper sprayed twice in the eyes, an attempted overdose of giving her three times the recommended dose of a prescribed medication and physical assaults.

After more than a month of living solo in her Lafayette apartment, Cynthia Mans had invited Natalia to move in with her and her husband, Christian pastor Antwon Mans, and their 10 children, at first charging $250 in monthly rent but eventually welcoming her as part of the family within days of meeting. In 2023 the Manses legally adopted Natalia—whose date of birth, after extensive medical tests and DNA analysis, was legally restored to 2003—and asked her to join in the family’s religious life and to help care for her younger siblings.

But after a decade of living together, Natalia's relationship with the Manses had soured and she escaped in the dark of night three days before Christmas in 2023. Although she declines to confirm or deny it, on the final season several witnesses including neighbors and friends claim to have seen the Manses whip Natalia with a belt, slap her in the face, lock her in a room and assault her. The Manses nor their attorneys responded to People’s multiple efforts to reach them.

Most recently, therapy and anxiety medication have helped Natalia cope with painful trauma and nightmares from her past, while she listens to artists like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus on headphones daily to ease her frustrations. “I don't like being known for the little girl that was helpless and was beat and starved and all that. That’s not who I am. That's just what happened to me,” she says, exhaling.

"All my anxiety all stem from just stuff that has gone through in my past, and it is definitely a hard thing to deal with, especially getting overwhelmed and everything like that," she says later, adding: "Even today, my anxiety is a little high. I thought I could just deal with it on my own without getting some medicine or without getting a therapist again."

But Natalia eventually sought help. After a panic attack last year, Nicole and Vincent DePaul — a family of little people along with their daughter Mackenzie— helped her seek a therapist. "They were like, 'Look, we need to do some tough love talk. You need a therapist, seriously,' and I was like, 'Yes, I do.' So I was put on anxiety, ADHD and sleep medication," says Natalia. "It's helped so much."

But Natalia says she still suffers from intense post- traumatic stress disorder at night while sleeping. "Most of those times are thoughts keeping me awake about questioning myself like, 'Could I have done better? Did I do something wrong?' Or it's nightmares about being in the orphanage or being back in the house with the Barnetts," she explains.

Although Natalia also claims to still gets anxious at times, she has found coping mechanisms in order to succeed while leaning on her the DePauls and her boyfriend Neil she met online. "One thing I've realized is I may be little, but I have a lot of big dreams like any girl ever does," she says. "I am finally happy."

The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter premieres January 6 and January 7 on Investigation Discovery and streams on Max.

Read the original article on People