Millie Bobby Brown: ‘Traumatising chase’ gave me three-month panic attack

Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown has said she had a three-month-long panic attack after a “traumatising” chase.

The actress, 22, is best known for starring as the psychokinetic protagonist, Eleven, in the hit Netflix sci-fi series.

Brown spoke about her mental health and described how she “shut down” after an “intense” and “scary” incident.

Speaking on the Jay Shetty podcast, On Purpose, she said: “My anxiety doesn’t come on a Monday and maybe a Wednesday.

“Something big needs to happen and then it will probably last for two months, every day. So mine are cycles.

“One of my longest cycles must have been three months and I got chased by somebody in a place and it sent me into a three-month long anxiety panic attack.

“I got chased by these people and it was really traumatising. It was very, very intense and very scary. I shut down for three months.”

Appearing emotional, Brown said that a trip to Japan, where she meditated with monks, helped get her out of her anxiety cycle and taught her techniques to help cope.

“Anxiety is the worst thing ever and I knew I needed to heal and I needed to figure out my anxiety before starting a family. I needed to understand what was happening,” she said.

“It was the most amazing experience. It took me out of the the cycle.”

Brown married Jake Bongiovi, the son of American rock star Jon Bon Jovi, in May 2024 and in August 2025 the couple announced they had adopted a baby.

She added: “Meditation has never been anything that’s worked for me because of my mind and how I’ve not been able to shut out thoughts.

“Nobody knew who I was, and if they did, they didn’t care in that moment. It was amazing and I will never forget the feeling.

“I do think that I’m a big believer in divine intervention, and I think that was a moment where God was like, you need to take a break and you need to sit there and figure out what’s going on in your head.

“I think that really healed me in a lot of ways. It healed a lot of me.”

Brown was just 12 when she filmed the first series of Stranger Things, which aired in 2016, and the series came to an end on New Year’s Day.

She also stars in Netflix’s Enola Holmes franchise, reprising her role in the third instalment of the film series as the title character, the mystery-solving sleuth sister of Sherlock Holmes.

She is also known for starring in the 2024 fantasy film Damsel, 2025’s sci-fi action film The Electric State alongside Chris Pratt, and will lead the upcoming rom-com Just Picture It alongside Gabriel LaBelle.