Netflix star Claire Foy has opened up about her lifelong struggle with anxiety, in a candid interview with the Guardian this weekend.

Foy says she’s battled the condition since childhood but it got worse as she grew older and developed her acting career.

“When you have anxiety, you have anxiety about – I don’t know – crossing the road,” she says. “The thing about it is, it’s not related to anything that would seem logical.

“It’s purely about that feeling in the pit of your stomach, and the feeling that you can’t, because you’re ‘this’ or you’re ‘that’. It’s my mind working at a thousand beats a second, and running away with a thought.”

The actor, who has just won an Emmy for her portrayal of a young Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown, says that often, these thoughts revolve around “how s*** I am”.

The Crown actor Claire Foy reveals her battle with anxiety