Gisele Bundchen suffered from severe panic attacks at the beginning of her modeling career. It was only with the help of a naturopath that she got better.

Gisele Bundchen (41) gives honest insights into her past life. The model is known for her great figure and bright smile. But Bundchen didn’t always feel really happy, as she says. In an interview with British Vogue, she spoke about her debilitating anxiety disorder and panic attacks. “From the outside it looked like I had everything at just 22 years old. Inside it felt like I had hit rock bottom,” says the top model.

Gisele Bundchen went into rehab

In her early twenties she was a chain smoker and drank a bottle of wine every night. “Imagine what that did to my head,” says the mother of two. After a year and a half, she confided in a naturopath on the advice of a friend. He immediately prescribed her an all-encompassing rehab, during which Bundchen suffered severe migraines for months.

At the time, however, she had no other choice. “I remember him saying to me, ‘Well, do you want to live?’ It was that easy,” says Bundchen. To this day, the 41-year-old gets up at 5 a.m. every day to meditate and exercise.

Gisele Bundchen has been one of the most successful models in the business since the late 90s. For years she was the face of the lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret. Privately she was in a relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio (47) from 2000 to 2005. She has been married to football professional Tom Brady (44) since 2009. The two have two children, son Benjamin (12) and daughter Vivian (9).