Jennie Garth has suffered with severe anxiety since the age of 19.

The 41-year-old actress admits in her new tell-all memoir 'Deep Thoughts From a Hollywood Blonde' she regularly felt uneasy when carrying out simple tasks as a youngster and she used to shy away from people, so that they wouldn't talk to her.

In an extract obtained by E! News, she wrote: ''I felt comfortable--almost comforted--by all of the workers buzzing around me during the day, but after hours, I'd find myself getting anxious when strangers approached me.

''And so simple tasks, like going to the grocery store, or the mall, or to get gas, became overwhelming exercises in having to be 'on' when my natural inclination was to shut down and not interact with anyone. I...began to suffer a level of anxiety that as, at times, nearly paralysing. When the panic attacks started to kick in, I became even more withdrawn.''

Before long, the blonde beauty stopped doing ''normal'' things teenage girls did and would only leave her home when it was dark.

She explained: ''[I] stopped going to the movies or clothes shopping or doing any of the other things normal young people do.

''I wouldn't say that I ever stepped over the line into full-blown agoraphobia, but I would say I definitely came close.''