Dove Cameron reveals why she suffers from 'major phone anxiety'

Singer and actress Dove Cameron has candidly shared the heartbreaking origin of her "major phone anxiety."

During a raw appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast on Wednesday, the 30-year-old revealed that her most devastating life moments were all delivered through a handset.

“Actually all three of my big losses have come via phone call,” she explained, noting that this has left her with a lasting sense of dread whenever the phone rings.

The most profound of these losses occurred when she was just 15. Only months after her father, Phil, had visited her in Los Angeles, she received word that he had died by suicide.

Recalling the moment her mother spoke to a relative and heard he was "no longer with us," Dove described a physical reaction that felt like "animal mode."

She suffered an immediate panic attack, admitting, “I had a panic attack because it's the most out of control feeling you can have... You feel like you're going to vomit your soul.”

For years, the Descendants star buried her grief in work, but her 20s forced a period of "emotional spring-cleaning."

She realised she had to stop ignoring the past and finally "go into the attic" of her suppressed memories. Writing her debut album, Alchemical Vol. 1, became a vital part of this healing process.

By revisiting these traumas and putting them on paper, she has begun to reorient her life, moving beyond the "fight, flight or freeze" response that once dominated her world.