Lionel Richie's youngest daughter turns to meditation and seeks help from a Reiki expert to help deal with her panic attacks instead of taking drugs prescribed by doctors.
- March 4, 2020
AceShowbiz - Sofia Richie has credited meditation and Reiki for helping her overcome her "zero-to-a-hundred panic attacks."
The 21-year-old model daughter of singer Lionel opened up about her mental health in an interview with America's Cosmopolitan magazine, explaining that while she went to the doctors to seek help, they wanted to put her on prescription drugs - which she refused.
Instead, she started to look into ways she could help herself without medication.
"I read a lot of books, and once I figured out what I was doing to myself, I learned how to control it," she explained. "I would convince myself that I was panicking or that I wasn't comfortable, and once I realised that I was doing that to myself and nothing was actually wrong with me, I was totally fine."
She also turned to meditation and a Reiki expert, who is also Miranda Kerr's Reiki expert, to help control her feelings. Reiki is an alternative therapy which involves the passing of a universal energy from the practitioner to the patient via their palms.
And while she still occasionally has that "oh my god, I'm about to freak out" feeling, prompted by "stupid things, like not having a water bottle in the car or getting stuck in traffic," she knows "how to be like, 'Calm down, you're here. There's nothing to panic about.' "
Now that Sofia, who is dating reality star Scott Disick, is in a better place with her mental health, she's hoping to help others deal with their issues.
Of her hopes of becoming known as an activist, she mused, "I feel like there's a space for me to talk about mental health, having dealt with severe anxiety."
That's just one of her dreams for the coming year, as she also revealed she's employed an acting coach in a bid to make it as a movie and TV star.
