‘Grey's Anatomy' Star Suffered Severe Panic Attacks While Pregnant Until Her Pastor Father Gave This 2-Word Advice

Sarah Drew opens up about the life-changing advice from her father, a pastor, she needed during a difficult time.

The actress, known for her roles on Grey's Anatomy and Everwood, recently spoke to Fox News Digital about her decision to become a mom. Calling it "one of the biggest, scariest risks that I leaped into."

"I took the risk, and I was pregnant. I was probably about six months pregnant, and I had been having panic attacks," she said.

Drew was terrified of what having children would look like.

"I'd been so caught up with anxiety about all of it," she shared. "I was worried I was going to screw up. I was worried for my kids that I wasn't going to have the necessary selflessness that's required. I was worried that I was too self-absorbed to do this well.

She knew she needed to reach out to her father.

"I remember writing to my dad and just saying, ‘Do you have any advice or any wisdom or any Scripture that you can point me toward that could help combat this fear? Because it's really overwhelming,'" she said.

He responded to his daughter with what she called "some really lovely Bible verses" alongside some life-altering wisdom.

"But the biggest thing that stuck with me was that the best way to combat fear is with aggressive gratitude," said Drew. "He calls it ‘aggressive' because it's not always easy when you first start practicing gratitude because sometimes you're just in a mind spiral, and all you can see is the scary and the dark."

This advice has stayed with the actress.

"You're looking for the good things because you're thanking God or the universe or whoever for the good things, and you're in the practice of doing it. And honestly, I started practicing that, and it has been the greatest combatant of fear in my life for me," she said.

Drew is now a mother to two children, Micah Emmanuel (born in 2012) and Hannah Mali Rose (born in 2014).

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This story was originally published May 23, 2026 at 4:54 PM.