Idris Elba Says He's Been in Therapy for a Year Due to 'Unhealthy Habits': 'I’ve Got to Adjust'

The actor, 51, explained that he’s been in therapy because being “an absolute workaholic” has taken a toll on him

Idris Elba is opening up about some of the unhealthy habits he’s hoping to break.

The London-born actor, 51, appeared on the latest episode of the Changes with Annie Macmanus podcast and detailed some of the problems he’s working on in therapy.

“I've been in therapy for about a year now. It's a lot,” he began. “In my therapy, I've been thinking a lot about changing, almost to the point of neuropaths [sic] being changed and shifting.”

“It's not because I don't like myself or anything like that, it's just because I have some unhealthy habits that have really formed,” he said. “And I work in an industry that I'm rewarded for those unhealthy habits.”

Elba called himself “an absolute workaholic” which he admitted isn’t great for his life and overall well being.

“Nothing that's too extreme is good, everything needs balance, but I'm rewarded massively to be a workaholic [compared] to someone that's like ‘Eh, I'm not going to see my family for six months’ and I'm in there grinding and making a new family and leave them,” he explained. “Those are pathways that I had to be like, ‘I've got to adjust.’”

Related: Zach Braff Says Therapy Has 'Helped Me Through Some Really Tough Times'

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“So I've been thinking about this a lot and oddly enough a lot of our childhood is really at the root of it,” the Luther actor added.

Elba said that through his therapy, he “definitely wants to” work on taking time for himself and finding activities that relax him. However, he’s been having difficulty with the task.

“The thing is, the things that make me relaxed end up being work,” he said. “My studio in my house, I just love being in here. I'll open that laptop and be like 'I don't know what to make today' and it'll come out like this or that. And I'm exhilarated by that and also so relaxed by it.”

“I could work 10 days on a film, underwater sequences holding my breath for six minutes, and come back and sit in [his studio] and [feel relaxed], more so than sitting on the sofa with the family  — which is bad right? This is the part where I've got to normalize what makes me relaxed, it can't be all work.”

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