--- title: 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' Star Rachel Bloom Suffered From Depression description: How "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" star and co-creator Rachel Bloom overcame depression and anxiety while creating her hit show. canonical: https://time.com/4537287/crazy-ex-girlfriend-rachel-bloom-depression/ author: Megan Lasher article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-19T20:26:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:38.322Z og:title: 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' Star Suffered From Depression While Creating Her Show og:description: Rachel Bloom credits her recovery to getting professional help og:url: https://time.com/4537287/crazy-ex-girlfriend-rachel-bloom-depression/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fd8e028d416e99d/6988aab2cd1bbaea2e702c42/rachel-bloom-crazy-ex-girlfriend.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations With "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' Star Suffered From Depression While Creating Her Show twitter:description: Rachel Bloom credits her recovery to getting professional help twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fd8e028d416e99d/6988aab2cd1bbaea2e702c42/rachel-bloom-crazy-ex-girlfriend.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ Star Suffered From Depression While Creating Her Show > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Twice a week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Megan Lasher](https://time.com/author/megan-lasher/) ## Megan Lasher Oct 19, 2016 8:26 PM UTC  Actress Rachel Bloom attends SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations for "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" at SAG-AFTRA Foundation on June 7, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. Actress Rachel Bloom attends SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations for "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" at SAG-AFTRA Foundation on June 7, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. Vincent Sandoval—Getty Images by [Megan Lasher](https://time.com/author/megan-lasher/) ## Megan Lasher Oct 19, 2016 8:26 PM UTC _Crazy Ex-Girlfriend_ star and co-creator Rachel Bloom has a hit TV show, a Golden Globe and just about everything she’s dreamed of. But getting to this level of success—and maintaining it—certainly isn’t easy. In [an as-told-to essay for ](http://www.glamour.com/story/how-crazy-ex-girlfriend-rachel-bloom-survived-depression)[_Glamour_](http://www.glamour.com/story/how-crazy-ex-girlfriend-rachel-bloom-survived-depression)_,_ Bloom discusses the anxiety and depression she faced on the brink of her show’s creation. Before pitch meetings with her creative partner [Aline Brosh McKenna](http://motto.time.com/4293182/cw-crazy-ex-girlfriend-writer-creative-partnership/), Bloom said she would have trouble sleeping. “Every night before a pitch that week, I had sleep anxiety,” she told _Glamour._ “I became delirious—and afraid that I wasn’t sleeping; ergo I would ruin everything. But the lack of rest didn’t ruin the pitches, and I was good at covering up my anxiety.” Around the same time, her long-term boyfriend proposed to her, re-hashing anxious feelings she had previously had. “All I could think was, Don’t be anxious—if you think about anxiety today, you’re going to associate anxiety with your husband for the rest of your life,” she said_._ At the peak of her stress, Bloom says her birth control company sent her the same pill from a different manufacturer. This change, she says, shouldn’t have affected most people, but had a harrowing impact on her: “I went from feeling anxious to sinking into the worst depression of my life. I needed help.” Since then, Bloom says meditation and psychiatric help have gotten her back on track, but also the knowledge that other people suffer from similar conditions. “The thing that has most aided me through my anxiety and depression is realizing I’m not alone. I’m naturally bubbly, even when I’m sad. But here’s what people can’t see: During a spiral the world feels dark. I have anxiety _about_ anxiety, then I worry the anxiety will ruin my life. It’s a snake-eats-tail loop. But in opening up to others, I found a lot of people have felt the same way.” [Read the full essay on Glamour.com](http://www.glamour.com/story/how-crazy-ex-girlfriend-rachel-bloom-survived-depression) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4537287/crazy-ex-girlfriend-rachel-bloom-depression/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4537287/crazy-ex-girlfriend-rachel-bloom-depression/"},"headline":"'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ Star Suffered From Depression While Creating Her Show","datePublished":"2016-10-19T20:26:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:38.322Z","description":"Rachel Bloom credits her recovery to getting professional help","url":"https://time.com/4537287/crazy-ex-girlfriend-rachel-bloom-depression/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fd8e028d416e99d/6988aab2cd1bbaea2e702c42/rachel-bloom-crazy-ex-girlfriend.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan Lasher","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-lasher/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fd8e028d416e99d/6988aab2cd1bbaea2e702c42/rachel-bloom-crazy-ex-girlfriend.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations With \"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend\"","caption":"Actress Rachel Bloom attends SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations for \"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend\" at SAG-AFTRA Foundation on June 7, 2016 in Los Angeles, California.","creditText":"Vincent Sandoval—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4537287/crazy-ex-girlfriend-rachel-bloom-depression/","name":"'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ Star Suffered From Depression While Creating Her Show"}}]}] ```