Jennifer Lawrence: 'Acting helped me overcome anxiety'

Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence has revealed she suffered from social anxiety growing up.

The Silver Linings Playbook star explained in an interview with French magazine Madame Figaro that she felt 'worthless'.

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Lawrence, 23, explained: "My nickname was 'Nitro,' as in nitroglycerin. I was hyperactive, curious about everything.

"When my mother told me about my childhood, she always told me there was like a light in me, a spark that inspired me constantly.

J-Law sports a new cropped 'do at the Paris premiere of the latest Hunger Games movie. Souce: Getty

"When I entered school, the light went out. We never knew what it was, a kind of social anxiety. But I had friends."

She explained: "I went to see a shrink. Nothing worked."

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According to Lawrence, it was getting into acting that helped her overcome her social anxiety.

She recalled: "One day, I begged my parents to take me to a casting. We went to New York, and that's where I started acting.

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"Just on stage, my mother saw the change that was taking place in me. She saw my anxieties disappear.

"She found her daughter, the one who had this light and joy before school."

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As an actress, she said:

"I finally found a way [to] open the door to a universe that I understood, that was good for me and made me happy, because I felt capable, whereas before I felt worthless."