Lindsey Morgan Left “Walker” After Spinal Injury Was 'Affecting My Nervous System, Brainstem': 'I Was a Mess'

"My anxiety was through the roof,” the actress said

Lindsey Morgan is revealing why she left Walker in its second season.

In an upcoming episode of Tommy DiDario’s I’ve Never Said This Before podcast, obtained by the The Hollywood Reporter, the actress — who portrayed Micki Ramirez in the CW series — shared that a decline in her health forced her to step away from the role.

“I had a spinal injury, which was affecting my nervous system and my brainstem,” she said, noting that it caused her to struggle with crippling anxiety and stress so much that she was unable to perform at work.

Morgan, 34, admitted that it was difficult to give up her “dream come true” after landing a lead role on a TV series.

“I was really blessed and lucky that I started working and didn’t stop,” she explained. “But, looking back, I realized my mistake in the sense of, like an athlete, I was working, working, working out putting, outputting, outputting, outputting, but I wasn’t recovering. All my dreams were coming true, and I was a mess. Me, personally, was not in a good place. My anxiety was through the roof.”

“I feel like I did not do good work. And looking back on it now, it was because I was so stressed out in my body — mentally and physically,” she continued. “I was a mess. I couldn’t figure out why. I have all of this responsibility on my shoulders, and I felt like I was failing everyone — and myself.”

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Morgan said on the show that her doctors ultimately gave her two options: Continue her stressful 16-hour work days and get on lifelong medication in order to cope; or completely change her lifestyle to minimize or eliminate stress. She said her health decline caused her to feel like she failed.

“I’m somebody that really pushes themselves and has really high standards, and I never want to let anyone around me down,” she said, per THR. “I felt a little bit like I let Jared [Padalecki]  down, or let the show down, and that was the hardest part for me, because it still makes me emotional, which I know is silly, because I was doing what I needed to do to take care of myself, and that’s more important.”

Back in December 2021, the actress first announced her exit from the series, telling Entertainment Weekly that it was “one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make in my life.”

“I really need to take the time to take care of myself and my well-being physically and emotionally and mentally, and reevaluate how I got to where I am and make some changes," she said at the time.

"My life had been so much about my career, I had not cared for myself enough during my 20s,” Morgan told the outlet. “All of that work and running and ambition, it caught up to me and now I'm facing a lot of burnout."

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