Kim Cattrall Describes Battle With Chronic Insomnia: ‘I Was In A Void’

Actress Kim Cattrall leaves the Awards Brunch during the 2014 Whistler Film Festival in Whistler, British Columbia. File Photo by Heinz Ruckemann/UPI | License Photo

LONDON, June 7 (UPI) — Former “Sex & The City” actress Kim Cattrall said the insomnia that forced her to step away from her lead role in the theatrical production “Linda” last year left her in a “void.”

The British-born, Canadian-raised star likened the chronic condition — which often left her sleepless for over 48 hours — to having “a gorilla sitting on my chest.”

Cattrall spoke on BBC Radio 4 in April to open up about her insomnia, saying she previously blamed “too much tea, and sugar,” for her sleeping problems. “I’d always taken [sleep] for granted,” she said before listing other questions that ran through her mind. “Is it age, is it menopause, is it unrequited love, is it self-esteem, instinct, relationship? Was it it abandonment?”

“I didn’t understand the debilitating consequence of having no sleep. It becomes a tsunami. I was in a void,” she said, according to The Guardian. “I didn’t want to let down the audience, the theater, the playwright or the actors.”

Cattrall withdrew from playing the lead in the onstage drama, which follows a 55-year-old businesswoman who seeks revenge after news of her affair goes public — late last year after her doctors recommended she take time off to focus on her health.

“Letting go of all that was the hardest part but I realized the work that I really needed to do was more important than the play — it was work or my sanity,” she said.

As for treatment, The Guardian reported Cattrall has tried cognitive behavior therapy. “I was gentle with myself,” she said.

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