Despite taking a whole host of narcotics during her wild teenage years, Drew Barrymore is refusing to take anti-depressant medication to help her with her panic attacks.

She said recently: “Every single medical expert says panic attacks] are not real.”

“So you’re like, ‘But how come when my throat is closing up, I’m blind with dizziness, I can’t catch my breath, and I am hot and faint and want to rip my skin off and am convinced I’m going to die, that’s so real to me?’

“I had some specialist recommend a daily drug, but I don’t want to do it because I don’t want to suppress my emotions. I would never take a pill.”

But, that’s not to say she doesn’t think they work: she saw an amazing change in her father John after he began to take a SSRI-type anti-depressant and it allowed the two to reconcile before his death in 2004 after many years of estrangement.

“He was on Zoloft, and he went from acting like an absolute insane maniac to a semi-insane maniac, and it was a great improvement for him, so I really believe in that stuff.”