After spending two months abroad, Vinny Guadagnino was eager to return to home. But when the Jersey Shore star learned the cast would immediately begin filming the show's fifth season in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, the 24-year-old was overwhelmed.
"It's a terrible environment for me to be in when I'm anxious because there's drinking involved, there's fighting involved, a lack of sleep, a lack of privacy," Guadagnino says in the video (above). "It's just not a good place for me."
Guadagnino decided to leave the show (as seen in the January 12 episode) because "one of your resources is actually to remove yourself from the situation at hand."
He then partnered with The Jed Foundation, a national non-profit that aims to protect the emotional health of teenagers and college students, to shares his story and help others through the Peabody Award-winning Half of Us campaign.
The MTV star says he began suffering clinical anxiety as a teen. "When my anxiety starts to interfere with my job, my school, or things that I do in my every day life, it starts to become a problem."
Fortunately, there are several ways to better manage stress, Guadagnino advises. "It doesn't have to be something so extreme. Nobody has to be on a ledge in order to seek help."
For more tips, watch the video above and visit the Jersey Shore star's Half of Us website.
