The 'Today' show co-host gave a speech about his mental health earlier this week.
Carson Daly recently reflected on his mental health journey.
On Tuesday, The Voice host gave a speech during the Project Healthy Minds gala, where he recalled the scary moment he had his first panic attack while hosting Total Request Live.
Daly opened his speech by sharing that the world saw him as a safe space, as he was the face teens saw when they got home from school every afternoon.
"It was a safe space for young people and I was a safe host, pretty much the babysitter for the latchkey kids of America," he said.
Daly said that ahead of one of the show's tapings, he was in his dressing room dealing with "normal Total Request chaos" with his producer, when he experienced a feeling he never felt before.
"Then something very unusual happened to me, out of nowhere in my dressing room, what I can describe as a snap in my brain, by heart started to race and fear went through my body like I was a kid and wouldn't let go," he said of the moment. "It was like somebody cracked one of those cold compresses at a little league game and put it on my neck."
Daly explained that he could see the producer talking, but at the time, he felt like he was outside of his body watching everything happen.
"I thought, 'My God I'm having a stroke in front of Hanson,'" he quipped. "It passed in 30 seconds but it felt like 30 minutes. Somehow I did the show on autopilot, I was able to get through it."
He continued, "The whole time beneath the surface, I was absolutely terrified that whatever happened to me could happen again at any moment."
The Today co-host shared that he went to the doctor, and asked if he was "dying or had cancer," before he was given his true diagnosis.
"Your real problem is that your life is unmanageable," Carson recalled the doctor telling him. "'And what you had was a panic attack.'"
"As it turned out, the panic attack was a symptom, stress and anxiety was the cause. As it turned out, I needed to make my unmanageable life manageable," he quipped.
Daly shared that slowing down didn't work. But the first step to finding out a solution to the panic attacks followed after he spoke with a friend who shared that he experienced the same things. Over the course of time, the television host said that he learned to manage his anxiety by doing breath work, meditation and taking medicine.
While he has learned to treat and live with his mental health, Daly admitted that he did have a panic attack that he managed to hide while hosting The Voice, and felt scared that he would have one while moderating a panel with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at the same conference.
"This is who I am," he shared. "Not only do I accept it, I am stronger because of it."
Daly was part of another larger conversation about children's mental health and social media. During the Archewell Parents Summit during the Project Healthy Minds World Mental Health Day Festival, the group discussed the impact social media has on kids.
Harry and Meghan -- who are parents of 4-year-old Prince Archie and 2-year-old Princess Lilibet -- joined Daly and Dr. Vivek H. Murthy to discuss ways various social media platforms are impacting children's mental health.
"I think we need to get out of this idea that young kids, there's something wrong with them. No, it's the world that we're allowing to be created around them," Harry said.
The Duke of Sussex also stressed the importance of the festival.
"For us, the priority here is to turn pain into purpose," Harry said via the Associated Press. He added that he and Meghan wanted to, "provide as much support, spotlight and platform for these parents to come together, to heal together, to grieve together and collectively focus on solutions so that no other family anywhere has to go through what they’ve been through."
RELATED CONTENT:
