Amanda Seyfried suffers from panic attacks due to life in spotlight

Amanda Seyfried suffers from panic attacks due to life in the spotlight.

The Mamma Mia! star has confessed she still faces anxiety and panic attacks brought on by the pressures of fame, and said her "bizarre" reaction to being in the Hollywood limelight "feels like life or death".

She said: "It feels like life or death. That's what a panic attack is, really. Your body just goes into fight or flight. The endorphin rush and the dump that happens after the panic attack is so extraordinary. You just feel so relieved and your body is just kind of recovered in a way. It's so bizarre because it's physiological, but it starts in your head."

Amanda - who has four-year-old daughter Nina and a seven-month-old son with her husband Thomas Sadoski - said her anxiety stems from people not understanding that she's a "normal" person, as they often assume she has a special life thanks to her fame.

She explained: "I do not have someone waking me up with breakfast in bed, and I'm not chauffeured around.

"And every time I meet someone new, I'm just so desperate for them to understand that you can talk to me. I wanna connect like everybody else, because I am like everybody else."

The Mank star escapes Hollywood life while she's at home, as she and her family live on a working farm in the Catskills of Upstate New York.

And Amanda admitted the move to a rural location has helped her feel "grounded".

Speaking during an appearance on Sunday Today with Willie Geist, she said: "It was very conscious. I've always wanted to live on a farm. I just need to feel grounded somewhere that I can trust will always be there."