Goldie Hawn on the life-changing moment she started having panic attacks

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Goldie Hawn still remembers the “scariest thing” she experienced as an up-and-coming performer.

The Oscar winner, 78, opened up about managing her mental health as she navigated her early career in an interview on the “Making Space with Hoda Kotb” podcast.

Hawn says she struggled with anxiety and depression after landing her first big television gig, a starring role in the sitcom “Good Morning World,” which ran for one season from 1967 to 1968.

“They said they wrote a part in for me, and I called home and I said, ‘Mom, you’re not going to believe this,’” Hawn recalled. “And then I became anxious and I had little panic attacks, and then I realized that every time I’d go into a restaurant or a place, I’d get dizzy, and I would want to go home.”

Hawn says this sudden shift in her emotional state disturbed her because she “was a happy kid” growing up.

“Nothing bothered me. I was joyful,” she said of herself as a child. “I didn’t know what happened to my joy. I mean, I lost my — I tried to fake my smile. I’ll never forget that. It’s the scariest thing that has ever happened to me.”

She added that she sometimes worried about having panic attacks while filming “Good Morning World.”

“I had to go back to my dressing room to pull myself together because I didn’t know when another panic attack was going to happen,” she said.

To cope with her anxiety, Hawn began seeing a psychologist.

“I went to a doctor and I spent nine years with him,” she said. “Why? Because I was learning about myself. I was learning about how to forgive, and I was learning as I grew extremely successful how to be able to manage other people’s perception of me because they didn’t know me.”

Looking back, Hawn says she sensed when she landed the role on “Good Morning World” that she wasn’t following the right career path.

“I didn’t want to do that. I was a dancer,” she said. “I was just getting my feet wet.” She says she also felt the weight of being “taken out of a world and put into another world.”

For Hawn, this experience highlights the importance of talking openly about mental health.

“We can’t live in the dark and wonder what’s going on with me. We have to know that people do experience this,” she said, “And it’s really important to acknowledge it. Because only until you acknowledge it can you fix it.”

This is one of the philosophies driving her foundation, MindUp, which creates educational programs to help children regulate their emotions, understand themselves and practice empathy and compassion.

During her chat with Hoda, Hawn opened up about how finding self-compassion has grounded her. She said she has learned not to determine her worth based on the perceptions of others, whether positive or negative.

“When somebody says, ‘I love you, you’re great,’ that’s wonderful. But they don’t know me,” she said. “And if people say, ‘Ew,’ you know, or you get bad reviews and they’re all so mean and terrible, you go, ‘Well, that was their perception. But it’s not the truth.’”