Idris Elba, a British actor, recently opened up about his year long journey in treatment to overcome what he called ‘unhealthy habits.’ Elba highlighted his resolve to making some positive adjustments in his life during an appearance on the ‘Changes with Annie Macmanus’ podcast.
The 51-year-old actor discussed some of the issues he has been working on treatment.
“I’ve been in therapy for about a year now. It’s a lot,” he began. “In my therapy, I’ve been thinking a lot about changing, almost to the point of neuropaths being changed and shifting.”
“It’s not because I don’t like myself or anything like that; it’s just because I have some unhealthy habits that have really formed,” he stated on the podcast.
“And I work in an industry where I’m rewarded for those unhealthy habits.”
Elba, A Self-Described “Workaholic”
Elba, a self-described “workaholic,” stated that his behaviors were detrimental to his life and general well-being.
“Nothing that’s too extreme is good; everything needs balance, but I’m rewarded massively for being a workaholic [compared] to someone who’s like, ‘Eh, I’m not going to see my family for six months’ and I’m in there grinding and making a new family and leaving them,” he stated.
“Those are pathways that I had to be like, ‘I’ve got to adjust.'”
“So I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and oddly enough, a lot of our childhood is really at the root of it,” the London-born actor continued.
“My studio is in my house; I just love being here. I’ll open that laptop and be like, ‘I don’t know what to make today, and it’ll come out like this or that. And I’m exhilarated by that and also so relaxed by it,” he remarked.
“I could work 10 days on a film, underwater sequences holding my breath for six minutes, and come back and sit in [his studio] and [feel relaxed], more so than sitting on the sofa with the family, which is bad, right? This is the part where I’ve got to normalize what makes me relaxed; it can’t be all work,” he continued.
