Celebrities look flawless on red carpets, TV and the silver screen. Many of them, however, have decided to put their "perfect' image aside and use their platform to speak out about mental health. Anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and other mental health disorders affect all people - even the ones we idolise. In an effort to bring awareness and promote acceptance, see what these stars have to say about their own struggles with mental health.
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Catherine Zeta-Jones
“If my revelation of having bipolar II has encouraged one person to seek help, then it is worth it,” the actress told People in 2011. There is no need to suffer silently and there is no shame in seeking help.”
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Brooke Shields
“I couldn't bear the sound of Rowan crying, and I dreaded the moments my husband would bring her to me,” the model wrote in a 2005 New York Times op-ed about her postpartum depression. I wanted her to disappear. I wanted to disappear. At my lowest points, I thought of swallowing a bottle of pills or jumping out the window of my apartment."
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Adele
“I’m very available to depression,” the singer told Vanity Fair in 2016. “I can slip in and out of it quite easily. It started when my granddad died, when I was about 10, and while I never had a suicidal thought, I have been in therapy, lots. But, I haven’t had that feeling since I had my son and snapped out of my postpartum depression.”
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Mariah Carey
“I was working and working and working,” the singer told People in April, revealing her bipolar disorder diagnosis. “I was irritable and in constant fear of letting people down. It turns out that I was experiencing a form of mania. Eventually I would just hit a wall. I guess my depressive episodes were characterised by having very low energy. I would feel so lonely and sad - even guilty that I wasn’t doing what I needed to be doing for my career.”
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Kerry Washington
“I say that publicly because I think it's really important to take the stigma away from mental health,” the Scandal actress told Glamour in 2015 about going to therapy. “My brain and my heart are really important to me. I don't know why I wouldn't seek help to have those things be as healthy as my teeth. I go to the dentist. So why wouldn't I go to a shrink?”
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Lady Gaga
“I openly admit to having battled depression and anxiety and I think a lot of people do,” the singer told The Mirror in 2016. “I think it’s better when we all say: ‘Cheers!’ And 'fess up to it.”
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Michelle Williams
“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?’ I wanted out,” the singer said on The Talk in 2017.
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Jon Hamm
“Medical attention is medical attention whether it’s for your elbow or for your teeth or for your brain,” the actor told InStyle in 2017. “And it’s important. We live in a world where to admit anything negative about yourself is seen as a weakness, when it’s actually a strength. It’s not a weak move to say, ‘I need help.’ In the long run it’s way better, because you have to fix it.”
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Kristen Bell
“Here’s the thing: For me, depression is not sadness,” the actress wrote in a 2016 essay for Motto. “It’s not having a bad day and needing a hug. It gave me a complete and utter sense of isolation and loneliness. Its debilitation was all-consuming, and it shut down my mental circuit board. I felt worthless, like I had nothing to offer, like I was a failure. Now, after seeking help, I can see that those thoughts, of course, couldn’t have been more wrong.”
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Winona Ryder
“I don’t regret opening up about what I went through [with depression], because, it sounds really cliché, but I have had women come up to me and say, ‘It meant so much to me,’” the actress told The Cut in 2016. “It means so much when you realise that someone was having a really hard time and feeling shame and was trying to hide this whole thing.”
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Ryan Reynolds
“Our father was tough,” the actor told Variety in a 2017 interview about his Deadpool success. “He wasn’t easy on anyone. And he wasn’t easy on himself. I think the anxiety might have started there, trying to find ways to control others by trying to control myself. At the time, I never recognised that. I was just a twitchy kid.”
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