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Sandra Bullock says she thought she was 'going to die' after her body started failing her because of extreme stress

Sandra Bullock wearing a red halter dress in 2018.
Sandra Bullock appeared on "Red Table Talk" and spoke about experiencing extreme stress.Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
  • Sandra Bullock spoke about how a stressful period of her life affected her health.

  • "I was looking at my body, and I said, 'It's going to break,'" Bullock said on "Red Table Talk."

  • The actress said she "had to take inventory" and pull herself together or else she'd die.

Sandra Bullock said that enduring back-to-back stressful situations took its toll on her body and led her to fear that she was going to die.

Bullock appeared on the latest episode of "Red Table Talk," which was released on Wednesday on Facebook Watch.

During her discussion with the cohosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith, and Adrienne Banfield Norris, the Oscar-winning actress said she used eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy to heal after a stalker broke into her home while she was inside in June 2014.

Bullock said she "wasn't the same" after the traumatizing break-in and called EMDR, which is used to help people with trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, the "most healing."

The actress said she had "extreme anxiety" and had a revelation during an EMDR session.

"When I got out of it, I realized I have surrounded myself often with unsafe people and situations and put myself there — I have no one else to blame but myself — because that was the most familiar feeling I had," she said.

Bullock added: "In that EMDR journey, I had to take ownership of everything that I bought into my world because it felt comfortable and realized it no longer had a place."

The "Bird Box" star added: "Vanity got me out of it."

"I was looking at my body, and I said, 'It's going to break,'" she said. "It was not responding well to what was happening."

Sandra Bullock on stage at the 2019 ESPY Awards.
Bullock said that a break-in in 2014 led her to seek help.Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Bullock said that several stressful situations happened in succession. She said it started when her son, Louis, had a grand mal seizure and she thought he died.

"Two days later, I pulled my hair tight, went to the Academy Awards, pulled it too tight," Bullock said. "Day later, I was bitten by a poisonous spider. My hair starts falling out. I have alopecia spots everywhere. I'm like, 'What the hell?'"

Bullock said that the break-in was the final straw that caused her to reevaluate her life.

"I literally had to take inventory, going, 'If I don't pull it together, I'm going to die. Something is going to happen to my body that I can't control' — and I can control almost everything — so EMDR, I sought counsel, and I would seek it again," she said.

Bullock credited Louis and her daughter, Laila, who were adopted in 2010 and 2015, respectively, as motivating her to recover.

"It was my children who showed me that unless I pull it together right now, I'm not going to be around to have the moments that I want to have," she said.

Watch the full "Red Table Talk" episode below.

Read the original article on Insider