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Zac Efron is pulling back the curtain somewhat on his life, recently revealing that he has agoraphobia.
The Baywatch star opened up about his agoraphobia — an anxiety disorder that involves the fear of going into crowded spaces, or sometimes leaving one’s home — during his October 2022 Men’s Health cover interview.
“I just don’t go out,” Efron, 34, told the publication. “People in large groups, it triggers my agoraphobia.”
While Efron didn’t elaborate much more on these fears during the chat, it’s something that other celebrities have spoken openly about as well, Men’s Health pointed out. Both Kim Basinger and Donny Osmond have been candid about their experiences with agoraphobia in the past, with Osmond revealing back in 2000 that he “would have chosen death” over performing if given a choice between walking on stage or dying at times.
He’s been a child star, a fitness pinup, an onscreen himbo, and an environmental activist. But @ZacEfron hasn’t always been healthy. Now he’s reinventing himself again, and he wants to do it right.
Read our October cover story here:https://t.co/CiOAWkKRJ1
— Men’s Health Mag (@MensHealthMag) September 7, 2022
Efron discussed the much talked about body he achieved for 2017’s Baywatch, letting readers know that he’s not sure if “that’s really attainable” with the rigorous training and routine he put himself through to get there.
“There’s just too little water in the skin,” Efron said. “Like, it’s fake; it looks CGI’d. And that required Lasix, powerful diuretics, to achieve. So I don’t need to do that. I much prefer to have an extra, you know, 2 to 3 percent body fat.”
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Staying in shape for filming often required the actor to not get enough sleep, overtrain, and eat the same three meals a day, he told the publication. And now, he wants to highlight just what it took him to get that body, and the negative effects that have lingered after filming.
Ture Lillegraven for Men’s Health
“I started to develop insomnia and I fell into a pretty bad depression, for a long time. Something about that experience burned me out,” Efron said. “I had a really hard time recentering. Ultimately, they chalked it up to taking way too many diuretics for way too long, and it messed something up.”
RELATED: Zac Efron Explains What Led to ‘Jaw-Gate’ and the Suggestion He Had Plastic Surgery
Elsewhere in the story, Efron also spoke more about a November 2013 fall that left his jaw broken and required him to get physical therapy to recover. He didn’t realize fans were speculating online over rumors of plastic surgery on his face until his mother told him, but as he explained to Men’s Health, which referred to the controversy as “Jaw-gate,” he’s not concerned about rumors.
“If I valued what other people thought of me to the extent that they may think I do, I definitely wouldn’t be able to do this work.”
