We seldom truly know what happens behind closed doors, especially in the life of superstars. Even though they appear to be prospering both emotionally and professionally, they can in fact be at rock bottom, barely able to stay afloat.

This was certainly the case for beloved actress Kirsten Dunst, who recently reflected on why she checked herself into a treatment center for depression in her twenties, emphasizing the need of being open about her past.

“I feel like for most people, around 27, the s**t hits the fan,” The Power of the Dog actress, 39, said in a new profile in The Times. “Whatever is working in your brain, you can’t live like that anymore, mentally.”

“I feel like I was angry,” Kirsten recounted, adding, “You don’t know that you are repressing all this anger. It wasn’t a conscious thing.”

The actress admitted that medication helped her. “It’s hard to talk about such a personal thing, but it is important to share too,” Dunst said. “All I’ll say is that medication is a great thing and can really help you come out of something. I was afraid to take something and so I sat in it for too long. I would recommend getting help when you need it.”

Throughout her career, the Spider-Man actor has been candid about the pressures of acting and how hard Hollywood can be on a person.

In 2015, Dunst told Town & Country, “What people expect of an actor is totally ridiculous. It’s unfair that an artist is expected to speak really well in public and have skin tough enough to withstand sometimes really hurtful criticism, but also, in order to do the job, be really sensitive and in touch with their feelings. So all you can do is be yourself—just be who the hell you are.”

In a 2010 interview with New York, she discussed the backlash to Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, in which she featured, as well as the loneliness she felt living alone in the Hollywood Hills. “You grow up in a business where there’s a lot of people-pleasing. It’s hard to be firm in your own ground and not be afraid to rock the boat,” she told the magazine at the time. “I was swallowing a lot of stuff… In my relationships and personal life I absorbed things from other people, and then because of what I do for a living, I had to keep giving. It can dissolve you.”

In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, she said that following this phase in her life, she became a “different person”

After 13 years, Kirsten says she feels more liberated than ever. She met her now-husband, Jesse Plemons, on the set of Fargo in 2015, and the couple has two kids, Ennis, 3, and James, born in September of this year.

“I think as a performer you put yourself out there more [after having a child],” Dunst said.

“You put yourself on the line because you have nothing to lose. It doesn’t really matter. And to show everything of yourself is a brave thing and a beautiful thing.”