Julia Louis-Dreyfus has always been known as quite the talented comedian, but the world saw a different side of her last September when the 57-year-old revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. “One in eight women get breast cancer,” Julia tweeted to her followers. “Today, I’m the one.” And now more than one year later Julia is opening up and talking all about her breast cancer battle.

Julia recently sat down with The New Yorker in a new profile and first discussed how she continued to use her social media and give her fans update on her condition. “There were people with long lenses trying to get pictures of me looking ill, and I think I kind of burst the bubble on a lot of it because of my social-media presence,” Julia told the outlet. Julia also revealed if she ever gave into her “fear” or “self-pity” during her cancer battle. “Don’t misunderstand: I was to — my — bones terrified,” Julia said. “But I didn’t let myself — except for a couple of moments — go to a really dark place. I didn’t allow it.”

Julia Louis
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Julia continued, “You know if you get on a horse and you have really tight reins and the horse is galloping? I felt like I had really tight reins on myself. That’s what it felt like: I was just holding on tight,” adding, “I’ve had a really rough year, blah, blah, blah — you know, we’re getting through it.”

“I had a rough couple of years, actually,” Julia, who also lost her dad in 2016, said. Julia, who finished cancer treatment in January of this year, discovered that laughter truly did help her. “The old cliché about laughter being the best medicine turns out to be true,” Julia said. “When I was getting my hideous chemotherapy, I’d cram a bunch of friends and family into the tiny treatment room with me. We really did have some great laughs. Of course, I was heavily medicated and slipping in and out of consciousness, so I was a pretty easy audience.”

Just a couple of months ago a source told Closer that Julia, “…won’t tell you this because she tries to be strong, but she was very scared,” the source said in an exclusive interview. “She’s feeling good! She has more energy and, as she says, ‘verve,’ than she’s had in a long time. She’s thrilled — and very grateful.”

Julia continues to do her thing too as her show Veep will premiere its seventh and final season next spring.