CULTURE
6 Celebrities Who Have Been Open About Struggling With Their Mental Health
20 Jan, 21
We can all agree that no one’s mental health has been at its best recently, and that even goes for celebrities.
Most recently, Dakota Johnson came clean that she suffered from an intense panic attack while on set for her new film Our Friend. She spoke openly of the experience on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She admitted that singing in front of people has always been “so terrifying” and that stage fright took hold of her when she tried to film the scene. “That was so scary,” she said of the panic attack.
“Singing in front of people is actually so terrifying for me.” While she was forced to leave set, she was able to eventually get through the scene. Her openness surrounding the experience is inspiring and refreshing.
With that said, Dakota Johnson isn’t the only celebrity to get overwhelmed by her battle with mental health issues. Here are a few other celebrities who have been open about their struggles with mental health.
Chrissy Teigen
Chrissy Teigen has been extremely open regarding her experience with postpartum depression. She also recently lost her third child and penned a forthright essay detailing the traumatizing experience on Medium.
“I have a great life. I have all the help I could need,” she wrote in another essay for Glamour. “But postpartum does not discriminate. I couldn’t control it. And that’s part of the reason it took me so long to speak up: I felt selfish, icky, and weird saying aloud that I’m struggling.” She concluded: “Sometimes I still do.”
Beyoncé
While we all know Beyonce for being a beacon of powerful womanhood, but the legendary creative powerhouse also struggles with her mental health from time to time. In 2011, she told The Sun that after non-stop touring and working, things started to get “fuzzy.”
“I couldn’t even tell which day or which city I was at.” Her workaholic tendencies were so consuming that she admits, “I would sit there at ceremonies and they would give me an award and I was just thinking about the next performance.” She admits her mother inevitably convinced her to take a gap year and “take care of my mental health.”
Michelle Williams
Beyonce’s fellow Destiny Child member has also been incredibly open about her mental health struggles. “When I disclosed it to our manager at the time, bless his heart, he was like, ‘Y’all just signed a multimillion-dollar deal and you’re about to go on tour. What do you have to be depressed about?'” the singer said of her depression on an appearance on CBS’s The Talk.
“Oh, maybe I’m just tired,” she said. “I was to that place where it got so dark and heavy, because sometimes you feel like, ‘I’m the provider, I take care of people. I’m not supposed to be feeling this way. What do I do?’ And I wanted out.”
Amanda Seyfried
The famous actress has been very transparent about both her mental health struggles and her journey to medication. “I’m on Lexapro, and I’ll never get off of it,” she said to Allure.
“I’ve been on it since I was 19, so 11 years.” She admitted she didn’t understand the discrimination against people who use medication. “What are you fighting against?” she asked. “Just the stigma of using a tool…You don’t see the mental illness: It’s not a mass; it’s not a cyst. But it’s there. Why do you need to prove it? If you can treat it, you treat it.”
Demi Lovato
Highlighting a long-time struggle with addiction and mental health, Demi Lovato’s journey to mental stability has been very much in public view, a complication she’s well aware of. “I think it’s very important that people no longer look at mental illness as something taboo to talk about,” she said.
“The problem with mental illness is people don’t look at it as a physical illness. When you think about it, the brain is actually the most complex organ in your body. We need to that it like a physical illness and take it seriously.”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Even the world’s most accomplished fitness inspiration and celebrity workhorse struggles with depression. “I found that, with depression, one of the most important things you could realize is that you’re not alone,” he said in a YouTube video.
“You’re not the first to go through it; you’re not going to be the last to go through it.” He was also transparent about how alone he feels. “You feel like it’s only you. You’re in your bubble. And I wish I had someone at that time who could just pull me aside and [say], ‘Hey, it’s gonna be OK.'”
We could all use that vote of confidence right now, Dwayne.
