Kristen Bell: 'I shatter when people don't like me'

Kristen Bell knows it's unhealthy to get upset when someone doesn't like her.

The 35-year-old actress has mental health problems in her family and so has struggled with her own from a very young age. She opened up about her battle in a new interview on DirecTV show Off Camera with Sam Jones, admitting it's her desire to be liked that leads to a lot of her issues.

"I'm extremely co-dependent," Kristen said. "I shatter a little bit when I think people don't like me. That's part of why I lead with kindness and I compensate by being very bubbly all the time because it really hurts my feelings when I know I'm not liked. And I know that's not very healthy and I fight it all the time."

Kristen adds that while she was popular at school, she always struggled with anxiety on the inside. Now she's mother of two daughters with husband Dax Shepard, the actress is conscious her girls might be susceptible to similar issues.

When she was a young girl, Kristen's mother told her that she might be prone to having a "serotonin imbalance" because she comes from a long line of women who have all suffered with mental health problems.

"My mom's a nurse and she had the wherewithal to recognise that in herself when she was feeling it and when I was 18 said, 'If you start to feel like you are twisting things around you, and you feel like there is no sunlight around you, and you are paralysed with fear, this is what it is and here's how you can help yourself,'" she said.

Kristen now takes medication to help her keep her issues in check, and is angry that there is still a stigma surrounding anti-depressants.

"If you do decide to go on a prescription to help yourself, understand that the world wants to shame you for that, but in the medical community, you would never deny a diabetic his insulin. Ever," she vented. "But for some reason, when someone needs a serotonin inhibitor, they're immediately crazy or something."