Felt physically paralysed during panic attacks: Jennifer Lopez opens up about changing lifestyle habits

By ANI

LOS ANGELES: Singer Jennifer Lopez recalled “feeling physically paralysed” during severe panic attacks she experienced in her late 20s.

In the latest edition of her On the JLo newsletter, Jennifer opened up about she changed her lifestyle after battling exhaustion-induced panic attacks, People reported.

“There was a time in my life where I used to sleep 3 to 5 hours a night. I’d be on set all day and in the studio all night and doing junkets and filming videos on the weekends,” she wrote.

“I was in my late 20s and I thought I was invincible. Until one day, I was sitting in a trailer, and all the work and the stress it brought with it, coupled with not enough sleep to recuperate mentally, caught up with me,” she added.

Lopez shared that she “went from feeling totally normal to thinking about what I needed to do that day and all of a sudden I felt as if I couldn’t move.”

“I was completely frozen,” Lopez wrote. She said she “couldn’t see clearly” and the physical symptoms “started to scare me and the fear compounded itself. Now I know it was a classic panic attack brought on by exhaustion, but I had never even heard the term at the time,” she added.

Jennifer revealed that she questioned her sanity until a health professional explained that she needed to take a closer look at her lifestyle.

“My security guard on set came in and picked me up and drove me to the doctor. By the time I got there, I could at least speak again and I was so terrified I thought I was losing my mind,” Lopez recounted. “I asked the doctor if I was going crazy. He said, ‘No, you’re not crazy. You need sleep … get 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, don’t drink caffeine, and make sure you get your workouts in if you’re going to do this much work.'”

Jennifer explained that she “let my own self-care needs go completely” as she prioritized work during a time in her life that yielded the dawn of her lifestyle empire, her debut studio album On the 6 and a budding film career that included her Golden Globe-nominated performance in Selena, as well as her first marriage.

“I realized how serious the consequences could be of ignoring what my body and mind needed to be healthy — and that’s where my journey to wellness began,” Jennifer emphasised.