TV show host Carson Daly open up on his struggle with anxiety and panic attacks

"I had a hard time breathing," he recollected in an interview that aired on Friday's show "I was terrified for no apparent reason."

The 44-year-old TV personality said the nervousness started at a young age. “I was a worrywart kid. I was always worrying,” he said. “My father died when I was five. I had an ulcer when I was in high school. I've been nervous my whole life.”
When he moved to New York, Daly's condition worsened because his "life changed overnight."

“At times I feel like there's a saber-tooth tiger right here and it's going to kill me, attack me and bite my head off. I’m scared as if that's really happening,” he explained. “You feel like you’re dying.”

Daly equally said that his career is not the reason for his anxiety. "People think, ‘Oh, he has anxiety. High pressure life. You know, you’re on television.’ It has nothing to do with that,” the father of three insisted. I've had heightened anxiety and mild panic attacks at the playground with my own children and wife there. The feeling was so gripping and so terrifying that literally I had to leave and excuse myself."

The Today show correspondent and host of The Voice has found what works for him when coping with GAD, citing that yoga and exercise help.
“I opted for a cognitive therapist, somebody who teaches you about anxiety, the model of it, and offers you tools on how to kind of work through it,” he noted. “Muscle retention relaxation really helps me.”