Kim Basinger looks like she is thriving as the 72-year-old, who has been open about her struggles with agoraphobia, was pictured in the wilderness of the Oregon mountains with her daughter Ireland, and granddaughter, Holland.
The family was on vacation at Timberline Lodge, a gorgeous mountain retreat in Mount. Hood in Oregon, and Ireland shared a series of pictures from their trip, with Kim pictured in one of them with a big smile on her face as she hiked the local trails with Ireland and two-year-old Holland.
Kim wore baggy sweatpants and hiking shoes, with a thick winter green coat, and she held a lifeguard palm straw hat in her hands. Ireland looked equally comfortable in sweats and sneakers, and a cropped grey sweater, although in little girl fashion, Holland wore a tutu skirt and ugg boots.
Agoraphobia is a type of anxiety disorder that “involves fearing and avoiding places or situations that might cause panic and feelings of being trapped, helpless, or embarrassed.”
“You may fear an actual or upcoming situation. For example, you may fear using public transportation, being in open or enclosed spaces, standing in line, or being in a crowd,” according to the Mayo Clinic.
© WireImageNever Say Never Again star Kim began battling the condition many years ago, and detailed her experiences of agoraphobia in a rare 2022 interview on Red Table Talk.
Speaking to Jada Pinkett Smith during the interview, Kim highlighted how the fear of panic made everyday tasks feel overwhelming and trapped, sharing that she was one day in a local health food store when she “found something really overcoming me in such a way that I couldn’t breathe”. She put the full basket down and drove home, and “that was the last time I drove for almost six, seven months”.
The agoraphobia led her to a point where she would not leave the house, go out for dinner, or even have people over to visit her at her house. “We tried that, and it’s really horrible to feel that [the agoraphobia] won as fiercely as it did during those years, and not know what it was. It’s like something just completely shuts down within you, and you have to relearn everything,” she bravely shared.
Her diagnosis makes the visit to Mt. Hood a significant milestone and an inspiring moment for others to see Kim outside; exposure therapy for agoraphobia does not cure it, but is a continuous process of management to break the cycle of avoidance and learn that the anxiety isn’t dangerous.
© Getty ImagesIreland had also joined her mom on the podcast, and Kim credited her daughter for being “a great teacher and a great healer,” revealing that Ireland had helped Kim to come “out of my shell.”
Kim was married to Alec Baldwin for seven years, and welcomed Ireland with the actor during that time. However, the pair divorced and it was not amicable, which impacted Ireland’s relationship with her father and led to increased anxiety and mental health issues for Ireland, which Kim and Ireland have both claimed Alec was not able to handle.
“He deals with anxiety greatly,” Ireland told Jada. “But he’s someone who grew up in a family that would suppress that as well or tell him he’s weak for feeling that way. There’s things I would go to my father for, but if I ever even tried to have this conversation in any way with him I don’t think he would really be able to absorb any of it or understand any of it. He can’t really sympathize as much with it.”
“I must say that because my relationship with my daughter Ireland was so negatively impacted by my divorce from her mother, and having a very protracted custody battle, that the media really were having a party about everything,” he shared on his TLC reality show The Baldwins.
“It went on for seven years, of which the financials were probably a year and a half, and everything else was custody. That’s insanity and really tough,” he added. “One of my most regrettable things about the whole thing was how it affected Ireland.”
To get help for agoraphobia, consult your primary care doctor for referrals, and explore support through resources like the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for immediate help.
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