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Goldie Hawn still remembers the ‘scariest thing she experienced as an emerging artist.

The Oscar winner, 78, opened up about dealing with her mental health while navigating 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 major television gig, a starring role in the sitcom “Good Morning World,” which ran for one season from 1967 to 1968.

“They said they had written a part for me, and I called home and said, ‘Mom, you’re not going to believe this,’” Hawn recalls. “And then I started getting anxious and having little panic attacks, and then I realized that every time I went into a restaurant or some other place, I felt dizzy and wanted to go home.”

Hawn says this sudden change in her emotional state bothered her because she “was a happy child” growing up.

“Nothing bothered me. I was happy,” 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’s ever happened to me.”

She added that she sometimes worried about 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 deal with her anxiety, Hawn went to a psychologist.

“I went to a doctor and spent nine years with him,” she said. “Why? Because I learned about myself. I learned how to forgive, and as I became wildly successful, I learned how to control other people’s perception of me because they didn’t know me.

Looking back, Hawn says that when she got the role on “Good Morning World,” she felt like she wasn’t on the right career path.

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

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

“We can’t live in the dark and wonder what’s wrong with me. We need to know that people are experiencing this,” she said, “and it’s really important to acknowledge it. Because only when you acknowledge it can you fix it.’

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

During her conversation with Hoda, Hawn shared how finding self-compassion has grounded her. She said she has learned not to determine her worth based on the perception of others, whether positive or negative.

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

This article was originally published on TODAY.com