The Life of Lisa Jakub: From Child Star to Mental Health Advocate

2023-09-12 15:13:33

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ – NOVEMBER 12: Lisa Jakub attends the 2021 New Jersey Horror Film & Scam Festival at Showboat Atlantic City on November 12, 2021 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (Photo by Bobby Bank/Getty Images)

Add Jakub He was one of the youthful faces that left their mark on Hollywood in the ’90s. She debuted at just seven years old on the big screen, when in 1985 she was seen in the drama Eleni with John Malkovich, although the role that would bring her fame would come almost a decade later when in 1993 she was chosen to accompany Robin Williams in the family classic Potato forever.

Jakub, who was accompanied by other child stars of the decade such as Mara Wilson o Matthew Lawrencewas responsible for giving life to one of the daughters of Williams’ characterwho played that endearing father who, after his divorce, posed as an older woman to sneak into her old home as a babysitter.

The film, a success at the time with more than $441.2 million at the global box office, propelled the young actress’s career, leading her to work with other renowned directors such as Joe Dante in Matinee or in science fiction classics like Independence Day. However, her fame was no bed of roses and led to problems that would force her to leave Hollywood.

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – NOVEMBER 22: Lisa Jakub attends the premiere of ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ on November 22, 1993 at the Academy Theater in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

The truth is that the pace of life in the cinema mecca was too much for her. In a text published by the actress in the web of one of his current projects, he recognized that focusing on acting and leaving school and the usual childhood activities aside It generated serious social problems.

“I didn’t ride a bike, I didn’t play an instrument, and I didn’t go to Girl Scouts, so I didn’t know how to talk to kids my age.“, highlighted Jakub, who She acknowledges that she was forced to go to therapy since she was 6 years old when he took his first steps in the industry filming commercials.

“Because of this social awkwardness, people around me worried that being a child actress would ruin my life and potentially turn me into a hedonistic attention seeker. “They were not wrong to worry.”

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Jakub said that from the age of 11 he began to experience panic attacks and that at 13 he experienced his first serious crisis.which made it impossible for him to appreciate the success he was achieving in Hollywood with Potato forever o Independence Day. Over time, the situation became complicated and the idea of suicide crossed his mindat which point he realized that he needed urgent help and opted to escape from that world that was so cruel for vulnerable childhoods like his own.

“If the box office correlated with mental health, I would have done very well. But it wasn’t like that and I wasn’t okay. My anxiety, depression and panic attacks were weakening me and my life no longer felt like my own,” she continued. “I felt like life was collapsing around me. I sat on the edge of the bathtub with a razor blade in my hand. I realized that if I wanted to survive, I needed help”.

And so, in the year 2000 when I was 22 years old, He made the decision to leave Hollywood and pursue a life focused on meditation to help heal his mental health.. She moved to Virginia and began working on cognitive behavioral therapies through yoga, techniques with which she managed to get ahead and that motivated her to try to help other people. She trained professionally in meditation and opened her own yoga and health center, to which books and texts in the press and on the web were also added about her experiences and reflections.

“The Hollywood life was not for me, with its superficiality, misogyny and endless competition. At 22, I moved out and moved across the country to find a life that wouldn’t leave me curled up and sobbing. When I arrived in Virginia, I thought everything would be different. But changing your external circumstances does not solve your internal problems,” he reflected on this radical change in his life.

“So I started doing the inner work. Cognitive behavioral therapy. Meditation. Yoga. Therapeutic writing. I was very, very honest about the work I needed to do. It was not easy. I have a long time. and saved my life”.

Today, at 44 years old, Add Jakub He continues to focus on his mental health and carry out all these therapeutic activities on a personal and professional level. If we observe their networkswhere she defines herself as a “retired author, speaker and actress”, we can see that she enjoys a healthy and happy life taking care of herself, sharing his experiences and with no intention of returning to the world that caused him so many problems in his childhood and adolescence.. Although yes, he has dropped in on reunions with his teammates Dad forever and He has never hesitated to participate in film conventions or activities related to this Robin Williams classic.