'Riverdale' star Madelaine Petsch: Busier I am, the less anxiety I have

Actress Madelaine Petsch says she finds it hard to give downtime to herself.

"I don't allow myself to relax. My therapist was explaining this to me. I have this -- it's not a childhood trauma -- but it's a kind of trauma that basically makes you think you always have to be doing something. So I feel like that's something I have to work on, allowing myself downtime," Petsch told a magazine, reports a media source.

She says the busier she is, the less

anxiety

she experiences.

Talking about why she pushes herself into her work, Petsch said: "The busier I am, the less anxiety I have. I really bury myself in my work because I -- this is maybe a little sad -- but because I want to be other people all the time. I want to bring other people to life. And quarantine for me is like, ‘whoa, I'm really just Madelaine all the time right now'. When you're always bringing other people to life, who does that leave you with? I feel like I have to be everything to everybody."

The actress also opened up about how she was "massively bullied online" for her character in a show.

Petsch said: "People would call me a bitch all the time. I was crying in bed every night. I called up my team and was like, 'I love my job, but this is hard for me'. And one of my team members was like, 'Maybe you should make a YouTube channel and show them how dumb and weird you are?'"