Ireland Baldwin just paid a visit to Jada Pinkett Smith’s famous red table, and in a candid “Red Table Talk” episode released on April 25, the actress and model opened up about her experience with anxiety and a specific anxiety disorder called cardiophobia. Essentially, this term means that “I have a fear of my own heartbeat,” Baldwin explains to cohost Willow Smith. Whenever Baldwin notices an increase in her heart rate, whether from nerves or exercise or excitement, “I start panicking,” she says. “I’m convinced, no matter what anyone says, that I’m gonna have a heart attack and I [have] to go to a hospital.”

Baldwin says her cardiophobia has resulted in “over 20” hospital visits and that it takes a doctor’s confirmation of her heart health for her to feel truly reassured that everything is OK. “It’s so crippling,” the 26-year-old says, explaining the frustration of being told she’s fine or asked to simply “breathe” in the midst of a panic attack brought on by cardiophobia. Baldwin recalls witnessing a stranger suffer a heart attack as a child, and says it may be the original trigger behind her disorder. “That messed me up,” she says. “I think that image never left my head, ever.”

What Is Cardiophobia?

Though cardiophobia isn’t as well-known as many other phobias, it affects hundreds of thousands of people in the US, according to a 2008 analysis. It’s defined as an anxiety disorder characterized by fears relating to your heart, with symptoms including:

• Repeated complaints of chest pain with no physical pathology
• Heart palpitations
• Fears of having a heart attack

People with cardiophobia believe they’re experiencing a physical heart problem “despite repeated negative medical tests,” according to a 1992 study. To relieve their intense anxiety, people with cardiophobia “seek continuous reassurance” and will often make repeated visits to medical facilities, just as Baldwin describes in her interview. Phobias in general can also cause panic attacks, and to someone with cardiophobia, the physical symptoms of a panic attack — including a rapid heart beat, chest pain, and feeling faint — can be easily mistaken for a heart attack, thus increasing their fear and anxiety in a kind of vicious cycle.

“Red Table Talk” is known as the place where celebrities open up. And the recent Ireland Baldwin and Kim Basinger episode is no different. Baldwin, a 26-year-old actress and model, got incredibly candid about her relationship with eating disorders, alcoholism, and drug use in an episode that aired April 25.

Baldwin, the daughter of Basinger and Alec Baldwin, joined the table to discuss her “breaking point.”

“I was self-medicating with Xanax, and I was drinking. And I have a lot of alcoholism and drug addiction in my family,” Baldwin told “RTT” cohost Willow Smith in a clip also aired in a preview for the episode. She went on to say: “I had isolated all of my real friends, isolated my family. I had no control in anything in my life.” Baldwin also said she “tortured” herself with her eating disorders, and she revealed that she didn’t talk to her parents for a year. “I saw them here and there, but I was so ashamed of what I had become and how I was living. I just became this different person. I was emaciated in every way; I was lifeless,” she said.

Baldwin also opened up about her experience in abusive relationships. “And I did go to a treatment center,” she shared. “I’ve been through a lot of different kinds of abuse.” Not only has she been in a physically abusive relationship, but Baldwin said she later realized that she was at one point being abusive as well. “I had been abusive to people unknowingly, ’cause I’m not hitting them or getting physical,” Baldwin said. “There was a lot of learning I had to do and a lot of acceptance of, ‘OK, wait, that was abusive behavior.'”

Baldwin’s “RTT” appearance comes nearly two years after she shared that she was six years “free of anorexia and bulimia.” In an Instagram post earlier this month, Baldwin opened up about the current state of her mental health. “I am in the most freeing mental headspace I have ever been in about my body image,” Baldwin wrote. She was also inspired to share some of her negative experiences after Camila Cabello took to the platform to call out paparazzi for snapping bikini photos that made the singer feel “vulnerable” and “unprepared.”

“I have been called some version of fat, ugly, worthless and irrelevant by grown adults on the internet since I was a kid. It’s nothing new. Paparazzi have followed me around for whatever boring reason and have snapped photos all up, in, and around my ass, cellulite, back fat, double chin, tits, you name it! It’s invasive and super lame, but it’s out of my control,” Baldwin wrote.

Baldwin also acknowledged that she still has her bad days. “But overall, I f*cking LOVE food . . . like romantically. I love my body. I love the way it moves. I love how I feel in it,” she wrote, adding: “All that matters is I approve of me, and it feels damn good. I am so grateful and lucky to be where I am.” Go, Ireland!