• In a new interview, Gina Rodriguez opened up about anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts.
• Gina, 34, spoke with NBC’s Kate Snow at the Kennedy Forum in Chicago.
• Gina said she began dealing with depression around 16 years old, and also had suicidal ideations.

On the CW’s Jane The Virgin and in Netflix’s new movie Someone Great, Gina Rodriguez oozes confidence. But the 34-year-old actress has dealt with some pretty tough stuff in the past—and she’s opening up about it in a new interview.

During a talk with NBC correspondent Kate Snow at the Kennedy Forum in Chicago, Gina revealed she’s had suicidal thoughts in the past. When Kate’s husband Chris Bro opened up about losing his father to suicide, Gina was prompted to speak about her own experience with depression and suicidal ideation.

“I think I started dealing with depression around 16,” she said, per Today. “I started dealing with the idea of—that same concept that I think your husband was talking about—(that) everything is going to be better when I’m gone. Life will be easier; all the woes will be away, all the problems … Then I wouldn’t have to fail or succeed, right? Then all this surmounting pressure would go away. It would just go away.”

Gina said that she felt like people would be better off with her not around “not too long ago,” adding, “it’s a very real feeling…it’s just new territory.”

Gina said her personal experience was the reason why she decided to be a part of the talk, and why she feels that it’s so important to be open on social media about her struggle. “It has to be a part of the conversations I have with these young girls. I can’t just tell them to go out and make their dreams come true and then to ignore everything else,” she said.

This isn’t the first time Gina has opened up about her mental health: In 2017, she shared a video on Instagram of herself without makeup and revealed that she suffers from anxiety.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUkRUcRAEkW/

My beautiful friend @antonsoggiu came to visit from Norway and he included me in his magical art. TEN SECOND PORTRAITS. It’s always great to be in front of his lens but this time it was just me. Bare and exposed in the streets of la. No makeup. No styling. Just me. I suffer from anxiety. And watching this clip I could see how anxious I was but I empathize with myself. I wanted to protect her and tell her it’s ok to be anxious, there is nothing different or strange about having anxiety and I will prevail. I like watching this video. It makes me uncomfortable but there is a freedom I feel maybe even an acceptance. This is me. Puro Gina.

A post shared byGina Rodriguez (@hereisgina) on May 26, 2017 at 12:08pm PDT

“No makeup. No styling. Just me. I suffer from anxiety. And watching this clip I could see how anxious I was but I empathize with myself,” she wrote in the caption. “I wanted to protect her and tell her it’s ok to be anxious, there is nothing different or strange about having anxiety and I will prevail. I like watching this video. It makes me uncomfortable but there is a freedom I feel maybe even an acceptance. This is me. Puro Gina.”

Gina said she still suffers from anxiety and depression, and had a panic attack while filming the final season of Jane the Virgin. “There was a point where I couldn’t push through every single time anymore,” she said. “It came to a point — this was the first season that … I had to stop production. I just had a really tumultuous season.”

But Gina said that she was proud to advocate for her own health. “I was unafraid, for the first time, to be like, ‘I can’t,'” she said.

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