Carrie Underwood Reveals Panic Attack Past

Chart-topping singer Carrie Underwood knows how to work a concert crowd, but being in the crowd is a different story.

"I'm a big personal space person," the American Idol told WebMD in a long interview.

The pop-country singer said she has preferred wide open spaces since she was a teenager, and crowded situations used to set off panic attacks.

"Whenever I'd be in stores and there would be people touching me and kids running around, I couldn't take it and I'd have to leave," she said.

Christmas shopping, she said, "seemed to be my worst nightmare."

But people are part of a performer's lifestyle, and Underwood said that she has learned to feel comfortable in crowded situations.  Still, she revealed, there were moments when energetic fans during the American Idol competition made her nervous.

"They feel like they know you and they love you and that's wonderful," Underwood said, "It just took me a minute to be able to figure that out and to be able to allow people into my space."

The recently married "When He Cheats" singer insisted that she was not a diva though, explaining that she is the youngest of 3 girls. 

"So I get a little spoiled pass," she told WebMD.

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