Sylvester Stallone My First Anxiety-Induced Attack Nearly KO'ed Me!

Published September 26, 2026 12:44 PM PDT

Sylvester Stallone is opening up about how he's quietly suffered anxiety-induced attacks for decades ... and how his diagnosis still plays a part in his life.

In a wide-ranging, candid interview with The New York Times, Sylvester said the first time he suffered from an anxiety-induced attack was when he was watching daily footage from a film project in his mid-30s.

He said ... "The first time was when I was 36 and I was watching dailies, and then all of a sudden I stood up and the hair on my neck went up and I started getting hot and I go, I’m dying, this is it, I’m on my way out. And bang, down I went. Took a knee, crawled, rolled over, and now I’m in this dark movie theater."

While Sylvester didn't label the episodes as panic attacks ... he did say he suffered similar moments of crippling anxiety "again and again and again."

The "Rocky" star said that the attacks come out of nowhere ... and are something he still deals with as he gets older.

He said ... "When I’m in a crowd, I’d be with my wife at an art exhibition and the room is filling up. It’s getting more and more, and then I’d go, 'I'm going down,' and she’d be like, 'Let’s get out of here.' And literally I just make it to the alley, boom, get down on one knee."