Katy Perry, Selena Gomez and more stars have shined a light on what it’s really like to deal with mental health issues in the spotlight.
Being in the public eye is part of the job when becoming a star, but it can make it more difficult to navigate one’s problems. Many stars, however, have used their platform to normalize mental health problems.
From sharing stories of postpartum depression to opening up about anxiety and suicidal thoughts, many of Hollywood’s biggest names have become more vocal over the years about real-life struggles.
Ahead of welcoming her first child with Orlando Bloom, Perry got real about facing bouts of depression and self-doubt in the past during an August 2020 interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. Following her 2017 breakup and Witness album releases, Perry revealed she became “clinically depressed and had to get on medication for the first time in my life.”
The “Roar” singer said she was “so ashamed of it” when she started taking medication. “I was like, ‘I’m Katy Perry. I wrote ‘Firework.’ I’m on medication. This is f—ed up,’” she recalled. The musician later learned how to “quiet it the f—k down” when it came to public criticism and went on a two year “psychological, spiritual, emotional journey.”
In April 2020, Gomez revealed that she has bipolar disorder and explained that by knowing that truth about herself she was able to feel more at ease.
“When I have more information, it actually helps me, it doesn’t scare me once I know it,” the “Rare” singer said on an episode of Bright Minded: Live With Miley. “When I finally said what I was going to say, I wanted to know everything about it and it took the fear away.”
Kristen Bell shared her own mental health journey during an interview on Sunday Today With Willie Geist in November 2019, noting that she felt “incredibly irresponsible” for not speaking out sooner.
“Everyone thinks there’s some shame in it,” the Frozen star said at the time. “I am someone who takes a medication for her anxiety and depression. I am someone who has to check myself and sometimes — if I’m feeling really low — make a checklist of good and bad things in my life to see if it’s my mental state or if we really have a problem. And me talking about that actually came from [my husband, Dax Shepard].”
Demi Lovato, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Jon Hamm have also opted not to hide their issues, instead speaking out about their past demons.
Scroll down to see what some stars have said about mental health.
The Full House alum opened up about how she handles her depression in September 2021. She said in addition to the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, being a working mom and traveling actress can mess with her emotions.
“Really another big part why fitness is important for me is it’s so beneficial to my mental health,” Cameron Bure explained in an interview with The Salvation Army. “I not only juggle my family but also work in a lot of different capacities. It can get really difficult. The travel can get strenuous as well. I need to keep my mental health clear. Just sweating that out and all those endorphins really help me a lot. I notice a huge difference when I don’t exercise, how much it can affect me mentally and kind of deal with depression.”
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In a rare interview, Wilson opened up about how struggles from his childhood went unaddressed.
“As a kid, there’s a lot of things that you think about. Death — that kind of landed with me when I was about 11,” the actor explained to Esquire in August 2021. “And I don’t remember ever talking with my parents about it.”
Wilson, who attempted suicide in August 2007, said that he tried to speak with his parents at the time.
“Although I do remember one time saying to my dad — and I remember exactly where in the house — saying, ‘I worry about dying,’ and seeing my dad turn away and catch himself," he recalled. "And I was surprised to see that reaction. But who knows, maybe that was part of why I said it.”
Since then, Wilson shared that he’s in a “lucky place” when it comes to his mental health, "feeling pretty appreciative" now.
"I know everything’s kind of up and down, but when you get on one of these waves, you’ve gotta ride it as long as you can,” he noted at the time. “I’ve just felt — yeah. Feeling pretty grateful. Well, grateful’s one of those words that get used all the time. Appreciative. Of, you know, stuff.”
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"When I was told that I couldn't have what I wanted, what I dream of, what I desired, and that was to rap. I was willing to die for it," the Grammy winner recalled during an episode of "Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man" in August 2021, going into detail about attempting suicide when he was 12. "[I] aimed for my heart. How I knew I had mental health problems was I pulled the trigger."
Police arrived at the scene, and although the musician was badly injured, he survived. "There is no bar to measure how real. [Mental health is] real," he said. "It's so real that if someone even has the guts, the heart, the bravery, whatever to at least admit that they have something going on up there that they're not sure about, it's so real that we should only react in the realest way possible."
In August 2021, Hudson shared a throwback photo of himself with a powerful caption. "Listen kid.. you’re [sic] future’s gonna be good but you’re gonna have to go on antidepressants," he wrote. "Shouldn’t be much of a surprise with that stupid face you’re making.. anyway, good look."
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The model admitted that she struggles with "insane social anxiety" that only got worse when she became a public figure.
"Partying is not my thing, but I felt enormous pressure to project that image because I assumed that's all people wanted from me," Hadid told Vogue in August 2021. "Now I don't want to live in that box. I definitely feel like I'm allowed to speak."
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“I’ve struggled with anxiety and social anxiety my whole life. I’ve masked it many times and this year has been heavy for all of us,” the stylist wrote via Instagram in August 2021. “Know there is hope. I’ve found it through sobriety and therapy. My life is happy again. I wish this for you all. Thank you for your love this year.”
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In August 2021, the British actor opened up about how his 2019 stay in rehab was beneficial for his mental health as well as his physical health. “I went through some mental health difficulties after [Game of] Thrones — and during the end of Thrones, to be honest — and I think it was directly to do with the nature of the show and what I’ve been doing for years,” he said during an interview on SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show. “I think I took a sort of break after Thrones where I said, ‘I don’t want to work for a year. I want to really kind of concentrate on myself.' I’m really happy I did that.”
Later that month, he detailed his "traumatic" struggles in an interview with the Sunday Times, sharing that some of his troubles included alcohol. “You get to a place where you feel like you are a bad person, you feel like you are a shameful person. And you feel that there’s no way out, that’s just who you are. And getting sober is the process of going, ‘No, I can change,'" he said of his state of mind before going to rehab in 2019, admitting that he experienced suicidal thoughts. "I will give you an answer to that question: the answer is yes. Yes of course. I went through periods of real depression where I wanted to do all sorts of things. ... I definitely don’t want to be seen as a martyr or special. I’ve been through something, it’s my stuff. If it helps someone, that’s good."
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Smith’s May 2021 performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon triggered memories of an anxiety attack she had before a live performance of “Whip My Hair” when she was younger.
"I was doing the Jimmy Fallon performance and I had a flashback of being, like, 10 or 9 and, like, having an anxiety attack on set,” Smith explained on a July 2021 episode of “The Yungblud Podcast” for BBC Sounds. “And basically feeling like everyone around me was just, 'You're just a brat… Why aren't you grateful? You're having an anxiety attack,' but they didn't see it as an anxiety attack. They saw it like a tantrum.”
The “Transparent Soul” singer explained that she needed to “take time” to process those feelings after reliving the attack.
"I need to go into a little meditation," the “Transparent Soul” singer said. "I need to separate myself from the situation a little bit and kind of tell myself, 'You're not 9. You're a grown ass woman.' … And so I have to retrain my mind. So, my mental health is in a very fragile state, but I think it's a state where it's about to grow in a really awesome way.”
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The Newsroom alum had a powerful conversation about depression and overcoming suicidal thoughts during a July 2021 appearance on The Demi Lovato Show. "For people who deal with depression, like you and me, and who can have suicidal thoughts, anytime you get to that place and it seems like things are too tough and you just can't take it anymore, just ask yourself if you can hold on another day," Munn told Lovato.
The Oklahoma native noted that if someone takes their own life then it’s “game over” and you’ll never see what could happen in the future. "The pain is really tough. I know, you know. We've been there,” she continued. “But if I had ended my life when I wanted to, there is so much I would have missed. And that's what's worth staying for.”
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The gymnastics champion withdrew from both the team and all-around finals during the Tokyo Olympics in July 2021.
“After further medical evaluation, Simone Biles has withdrawn from the final individual all-around competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games, in order to focus on her mental health,” USA Gymnastics said in a statement at the time. “Simone will continue to be evaluated daily to determine whether or not to participate in next week’s individual event finals.”
After her exit, Team USA went on to earn the silver medal during the team finals, which Biles claimed they might not have earned had she not withdrawn from the competition.
“After that vault, I was like: ‘I’m not in the right headspace, I’m not going to lose a medal for this country and for these girls’ because they worked way too hard for me to go out there and have them lose a medal,” the Dancing With the Stars alum said in a press conference at the time.
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The model opened up about her body dysmorphia struggles while she lived at the Playboy Mansion in a candid July 2021 TikTok video.
"So for a recent post, I was looking for pictures of myself in a bunny costume and I came across one. It reminded me of a moment in my life where I was watching a playback of myself in a fashion show and I thought, 'Oh, my God, I need to lose weight,'" Madison explained in the video, alongside a photo of her from 2005. "[I] thought I had gained weight, and thought I hadn't stuck to my diet, and I thought my thighs were huge and I thought, 'I need to lose five pounds at least,’ and that's ridiculous. I look like a stick."
In the video, Madison hoped by sharing her story that others can realize the “off the charts” effects of body dysmorphia.
“It's not worth it,” she continued. “It’s not worth feeling bad about yourself. Like, there are things we all want to improve about ourselves, but it's not even worth taking the time to be miserable.”
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The tennis star opened up for the first time in July 2021 after mental health issues caused her to drop out of the French Open two months prior. In an essay published by Time, she wrote that she “felt pressure” to disclose her symptoms at the time and worried that people “did not believe [her].”
Osaka also mentioned that she thinks every athlete deserves "the right to take a mental break from media scrutiny on a rare occasion without being subject to strict sanctions." After saying she wouldn’t do press for the French Open in May 2021, she received a $15,000 fine.
"In any other line of work, you would be forgiven for taking a personal day here and there, so long as it's not habitual. You wouldn't have to divulge your most personal symptoms to your employer; there would likely be HR measures protecting at least some level of privacy," she wrote. "I feel uncomfortable being the spokesperson or face of athlete mental health as it’s still so new to me and I don’t have all the answers. I do hope that people can relate and understand it’s OK to not be OK, and it’s OK to talk about it. There are people who can help, and there is usually light at the end of any tunnel."
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"I am back in Indiana right now because of a breakdown, again, in my life where I don't know what's happening," the season 20 Bachelor admitted to Trista Sutter during a July 2021 episode of her "Better Etc." podcast. "I don't know what this next season of life looks like for me. I'm farther and farther removed from the show, and at the same time, I need to figure out what my life is going to look like and what my legacy is going to be."
The reality star explained that fame altered his mental health over time, but that he was looking forward to a new chapter in his life even if it came with fear.
"It's also really hard," he said. "I'm at a low place, I don't see myself as this thriving figure right now. I'm kind of lamenting and separating myself from a lot of things that I held close."
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The Kevin Can F--k Himself star opened up to The Zoe Report in June 2021 about her struggle with depression. At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Annie Murphy flew home to Canada right as lockdown orders were set in place. She revealed, “My mom was like, ‘You're crying 12 times a day hysterically, to the point where your teeth are chattering. That's not normal.’” From there, she met with a therapist who diagnosed her with depression. “I was like, ‘Damn it, I'm depressed.”
With the help of regular therapy and antidepressants, the Emmy Award winner revealed she doesn’t cry every day and can focus on other things in her life. She added, “You don't have to be on drugs for the whole time, but they truly, truly saved my life in the sense that I was not a functional human being and I was able to be a functional human being.”
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The "Buy U a Drank" rapper revealed in June 2021 that some harsh criticism from Usher caused his mental health to take a negative turn. "Usher was my friend," the Florida native recalled of the 2013 conversation during Netflix's This Is Pop. "I really respect Usher. And he said, 'I'm gonna tell you something, man. You kinda f--ked up music.' ... I chuckled a little bit, it was a nervous chuckle. I didn't understand, you know?"
The comment left a big impression on T-Pain. "That is the very moment, and I don't even think I realized this for a long time," he shared. "But that's the very moment that started a four-year depression for me."
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The To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before star got real about her battle with anxiety in June 2021. “Some days my anxiety really gets me and I need to lay in bed & be alone until the trembling stops. And that is absolutely OK!” she tweeted at the time. “I charge [very] introverted so that I can expel extroverted energy at my job. And that’s also OK. Take care of yourself and please be kind to yourself.”
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The Deadpool star opened up about his ongoing battle with anxiety as a part of Mental Health Awareness month in May 2021. “One of the reasons I’m posting this so late is I over schedule myself and important things slip. And one of the reasons I over schedule myself is my lifelong pal, anxiety,” Reynolds wrote via Instagram just days before the month ended. “I know I’m not alone and more important, to all those like me who over schedule, overthink, overwork, over-worry and over-everything, please know you’re not alone.”
The Proposal actor concluded: “We don’t talk enough about mental health and don’t do enough to destigmatize talking about it. But, as with this post, better late than never, I hope …”
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In a May 2021 interview with Good Morning Britain, the Oscar winner spoke about struggling with depression when she was in her early 20s. "I was 21 and I was rising to success," she recalled. "I know it sounds terrible, but it's a very, very difficult thing — I didn't necessarily want that. Now in doing so, I was very depressed. And I had a lot of these issues where I couldn't even go outside in public. This is something I worked through. I went to a doctor. I went to a psychologist."
The Private Benjamin star added that she hadn't really planned to become famous — she originally moved to Hollywood to become a dancer — and was surprised when she became a household name. "Unfortunately, I didn't want to be a big deal," she shared. "I wanted to go home."
The Schitt's Creek cocreator and star opened up about his lifelong battle with anxiety during a December 2020 interview with Bustle, revealing that his mental health struggles came with a few physical side effects. "I think that came from a deep-rooted fear of knowing that I was gay and not being able to be free," Levy said at the time. "By the time I got to high school, when your brain is starting to catch up to your physical impulses, it led to a very confusing time. Because on the one hand, you are now being introduced to things like self-awareness and anxiety. At the same time, you’re becoming more and more savvy when it comes to hiding it."
While social situations caused a serious amount of stress, Levy found an escape in school plays. "I was starting to develop a sense of confidence by way of being able to entertain people," he explained. "It was like a decoy version of myself that I was putting out there to not have to live with the reality that when the bullying was happening ... they were speaking the truth."
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The Bachelorette alum posted three photos showing her dancing as she marked World Mental Health Day in October 2020. The former beauty queen recalled the time she went to see a doctor before going into her junior year of college, when the physician asked her a simple question: "Are you happy, Hannah?"
"I will never forget that seemingly simple question that came with a heavy answer," she wrote. "I'm the girl that is always wearing a smile! How dare he ask?! But oh, thank God he did."
"'No…. I'm not. I don't even remember the last time I felt happy. And I don't know why. I have reason to be happy, but I just can't really feel it,' I said through broken words passing through the lumps of emotions that had felt indefinitely lodged in my throat," the Dancing With the Stars champ admitted. "I couldn't keep up the act anymore. For years, I silently struggled internally as I was externally championed as the one who always seemed happy. I honestly think that day in the doctor's office was the first time someone asked me if I was indeed, happy."
"Admitting I wasn't okay, and acknowledging my silent, hostage struggle with anxiety and depression through my crocodile tears was a pivotal day for me," she continued. "I have made big leaps of progress in healing and understanding 'its okay not to be okay', with important tools and support to help manage the thoughts and feelings that take over and store within me. But several times in my progress, I have had setbacks; many being the overflow of not observing, in private, the gradual buildup of the hurtful, impactful emotions which consequently spewed into some, more public, relapses of destructive behavior. "
Brown added that it's important to remember that "progress in mental health is a journey with hills and valleys. Our whole world has been through a valley of fear and hurt this year. Be gentle with yourself. Be humble during the process. You aren't going to always get it right and you will make mistakes, but you—just as you are, are enough. You matter. Ask for help. You are worthy of being able to answer the 'are you happy?' question and to say yes, regardless of the circumstances that would usually take your mind and soul captive. You got this. We've got this. You aren't alone."
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The Olympic gold medalist spoke out publicly for the first time in October 2020 about her struggles with OCD during an episode of the “Armchair Expert” podcast. "I always thought OCD was I have to touch this x amount of times or I have to do this x amount of times before I leave the room, but I've also learned that OCD is classified with ruminating thoughts or obsessive thoughts or catastrophic thinking," she explained to host Dax Shepard. "I have that and I'm really trying to work on that right now because sometimes our minds go to our worst-case scenario. "
The gymnast revealed that it’s not as easy as simply telling yourself to have a positive mindset. "I feel like for people who don't understand it, they're like, ‘Just don't think about it.' It does not work like that!" she said. "It's so hard because I've been trying to really educate myself on how our minds work just so I can help myself but also just so I can better talk about it and better understand it on a personal level with my family or my friends but also on a public level as well."
The Fierce author has continually tried to educate herself on OCD and chose to discuss her personal struggles in hopes of helping others who suffer from the same thing. "So much of the time, our minds don't really realize what's made up and what's real and that's what I struggle with so much is that fight or flight response where it can be something so small and my body is reacting as if a tiger is trying to eat me," she explained. "In my opinion, it relates to trauma and PTSD. Unless you're getting to the root of the problem of why you are not feeling safe or out of control, you're going to keep having OCD and it's going to manifest into other ways of your life."
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Cyrus celebrated the two-year anniversary of her first EP, “Good Cry” in September 2020, and revealed all of the ups and downs she’s experienced since its release. “I’ve been through so much since then. Putting this ep out and going on tour during one of the most depressive times in my life was so hard,” the musician explained via Instagram. “Every day felt like lifting 100lb weights just to get out of bed. The ache in my chest from the pain felt unbearable. At 18 I didn’t think I was going to be here for a 20th birthday soon to be 21. They felt 1000 years away.”
The “Again” singer revealed that she was “so sad, so hurt and so scared” during that time before thanking those who were by her side “during all of my progression and the times where I felt like I was regressing.” Cyrus continued: “Every day is work when it comes to your mental health and personal battles. Not every day is going to be hell and not every day is going to be perfect. I’m still figuring that out. Thank you Cyrens for being patient.”
The “July” artist thanked her fans for “understanding” how “hard” it was for Cyrus to grow up in the public eye, before going into more detail about how important the EP is to her. “I always have written nothing but the truth and this ep was exactly that. I still stand with needing a good f--kin cry every once in awhile. I know that pain is something we HAVE to feel and experience,” she continued. “I owe this album so much. It tought [sic] me so much about myself... and looking back at myself then to show I am now I just want to run back in time and give that Noah a huge ass hug.. as she was breaking ever so slowly. I’m so happy that I was able to create something that everyone relates to... I turned the pain into something beautiful that others can sing, cry, or smile to and nothing makes me feel more purposeful than that. I love you all thank you so much for everything.”
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The Emmy nominee opened up about her struggle with anxiety during a candid interview with Glamour UK in August 2020, noting that staying creative helps change her mood. "When I'm having a bad day or I’m feeling very anxious, some things like when people say, 'Oh, you looked bad at this award show because you looked like this or you looked like that,' those things make me a little bit more anxious and that hinders me a little bit more," she said. "I have learned to manage it in ways that a lot of people learn to manage things like breathing exercises or distracting your mind and my hobbies help distract me from being anxious. ... I have to give myself love because that’s important. Everyone has to empower themselves."
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The “Roar” singer revealed during an August 2020 interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that during her 30s she hit a wall when she was no longer able to fix her bouts of depression by writing songs about her pain. "I broke up with my boyfriend. My expectations weren't met and the world didn't want to hear from me anymore at that moment," she said looking back at the years in her life that “everything changed” for her. "They were like, 'That's enough. Thank you very much. You've given us something and we're good.' And I just couldn't get out of bed for weeks and became clinically depressed and had to get on medication for the first time in my life."
Perry explained that once she was on medication she was “so ashamed of it. I was like, 'I'm Katy Perry. I wrote 'Firework.' I'm on medication. This is f---ed up.'" The singer’s upcoming Smile album gave her the professional and personal comeback she needed.
"The last two-and-a-half years have been a psychological, spiritual, emotional journey of just pulling the petrified poison out of my body and rewiring my neural pathways and that negative thought ticker that keeps coming says, 'You're just lucky. You're just cute. You're not really good. You're not very talented. You're lucky. You're just lucky,' or, 'You're not worth it. You're not good enough. You're getting old. You're fat,' all that s--t," she recalled. "I figured out how to quiet it the f---k down.”
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In July 2020, the daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis shared her battle with depression and suicidal thoughts. “A lethal combination of untreated severe chemical imbalance/depression, harmful coping mechanisms and certain debilitating traumas has me questioning if I wanted to continue this life,” she wrote via Instagram. “To have suicidal ideation to me, is to feel there is an unpredictable and unstoppable threat living within your body. In far too often moments, I felt the pain was too overwhelming to keep going. I begged to be saved from my own mind. I am unfathomably lucky that by some unseen force I did not take action on these thoughts.”
Tallulah urged those who are “hurting or questioning harming themselves” to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
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After moving in with her grandmother after her dad's death in 2009, the model/musician turned down a dark path. "I gained a lot of weight and food became an addiction," Jackson revealed during an episode of her Unfiltered: Paris Jackson & Gabriel Glenn series in June 2020. "And then a cousin called me fat and I was like, 'OK, I can't do that anymore.' And that's how I fell into self-harm." Jackson explained that she would physical hurt herself as a "distraction from emotional pain" and that she tried to take her own life "many times." While she continues to take "baby steps" on her journey to self-love, she admitted that she wants to be an advocate for "self-acceptance and courage and being comfortable in your own skin."
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The Oscar winner shared in July 2020 that she suffered from anxiety. “For me, my baseline has been I’m an introvert with asthma. Like, that’s been my story for myself. I’m introverted, I’m scared, I have social anxiety,” she explained in a YouTube video on her channel. “And through, in particular, playing Captain Marvel, that like kind of wiped clean those titles I had for myself and made me go, ‘Whoa, I’m not really that anymore.’”
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“I suffer from depression,” the American Idol alum told Demi Lovato on The Kelly Clarkson Show in June 2020 in the midst of her divorce from Brandon Blackstock. “I think a lot of people, especially in the creative world, or just from childhood, you’ve been kind of trained to, like, just keep going and you can handle it. Especially as a woman, it’s like, ‘Don’t let ‘em see you sweat.’ ... I think that’s a daily thing that you work at and a daily thing that I work at.”
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The “Rare” singer has been vocal about her struggles with depression and her mental health in the past, but she revealed in April 2020 that she has bipolar disorder. “Recently, I went to one of the best mental hospitals in the world … And I discussed that after years of going through a lot of different things I realized that I was bipolar,” Gomez admitted on Bright Minded: Live With Miley. “When I have more information, it actually helps me, it doesn’t scare me once I know it … When I finally said what I was going to say, I wanted to know everything about it and it took the fear away.”
The Disney Channel alum added, “When I was younger, I was scared of thunderstorms and my mom bought me all these books on thunderstorms and she was like, ‘The more you educate yourself on this, the more that you’re not going to be afraid.’ It completely worked. That’s something that helps me big time.”
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“I suffer from depression,” the Empire star said in an April 2019 interview with Variety. “My anxiety is kicking up even more every day, and I’ve never really dealt with anxiety like that. It’s something new.” Henson also revealed that she talks to a therapist regularly: “Their job is to make sure you’re mentally sound, whatever that is, and telling you the truth, which might hurt. Sometimes your friends don’t want to hurt your feelings. If I’m going to change for the better, I need honesty, and sometimes your friends and family don’t have it in them to be brutally honest.”
In a December 2019 interview with SELF, Henson elaborated on the telltale signs that she needed help: “I noticed the mood swings — like, one day I’d be up, and the next day I’d be down, feeling like I don’t want to go out in public. Almost agoraphobic, like, ‘Ugh, too much to deal with.’ Feeling really awkward in my skin, feeling out of sorts, and just down, like Debbie Downer, like a dark cloud. And then there would be days where my brain wouldn’t stop racing. I would think of the worst scenarios in the world, which would heighten my anxiety.”
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The former Bachelorette star opened up on her “Off the Vine” podcast in November 2019 about how she often suffers from debilitating anxiety and revealed that her dog has helped her cope. “[My anxiety] left me laying on the floor this one night in my house, not wanting to even talk to Jason until it passed,” she said, referencing her boyfriend Jason Tartick. “I felt my anxiety coming on — immediately went looking for my dog, Ramen, who is really the only one that keeps me calm when I experience being close to a panic attack and when I feel that pain or heat in my chest.”
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During a revealing interview on Sunday Today With Willie Geist in November 2019, the Frozen 2 star opened up about feeling "incredibly irresponsible" for not being more honest about her mental health struggles in the past. “Everyone thinks there’s some shame in it ... I am someone who takes a medication for her anxiety and depression. I am someone who has to check myself and sometimes — if I’m feeling really low — make a checklist of good and bad things in my life to see if it’s my mental state or if we really have a problem. And me talking about that actually came from [my husband, Dax Shepard] — ugh, I hate to give him credit for everything, it’s so annoying that he’s so right about everything.”
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“I didn’t want to admit it,” the actress told Romper of her postpartum depression in November 2019. “It was that shame.” But after she opened up to her sister, husband and friends, they became her “support system.” She explained, “When I was sad or going through my emotions, I would talk about it. I didn’t suppress them. I think that helped.”
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Speaking with the Hollywood Reporter’s “Awards Chatter” podcast in October 2019, the actor opened up about how his years as a Disney Channel star contributed to his mental health issues. “It was the first time I’d been told I had PSTD,” he said, recalling his experience in rehab after his 2017 arrest. “I just thought I was an alcoholic, like, a true-blue drunk and I needed to deal with that. I knew it was an issue but didn’t know there was this extra whole other thing that was hindering my ability to have any peace in my life and my ability to deal with people.”
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“Sadly, I separated from my lovely first husband [Tony Walton]. And separations were always inevitable and the marriage was over and my head was so full of clutter and garbage. Believe it or not, it was [director] Mike Nichols who really tipped me into wanting to go to therapy,” the Sound of Music star recalled on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in October 2019. “He had been, and he was, so sane and funny and clear. He had a clarity that I admired so much. I wanted that for myself. And I didn’t feel I had it, so I went and got into it, and it saved my life, in a way.”
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“I deleted this post earlier, because honestly I’m personally struggling with my mental health right now, and the words I wrote fell flat when I read them,” the Bachelor alum captioned an October 2019 Instagram post. “How could I say these things to others when I didn’t/don’t believe them about myself? I deleted the post, walked to the room down the hall, opened the door, and told Tanner, ‘I’m not OK.’ Lean on those you love, ask for help. You are not a burden.”
Roper went on to tell Us exclusively, “As much as there is so much joy [in motherhood], there’s so much extra that’s sometimes overwhelming. Talk to your loved ones. Let them know what you’re going through because there is help and there is hope.”
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The Queer Eye star opened up about his mental health struggles in his memoir, Over the Top. The hairstylist, who came out as HIV positive in his book, told The New York Times in September 2019 that he suffered from “compounded trauma.” The next month, he exclusively told Us Weekly that he’s an advocate for therapy and has a “great therapist.” He also shared that, sometimes, saying no to socializing can positively impact mental health. The grooming guru said: “I think learning to like your own company and making time to be quiet and spend time with yourself, even if that’s like a morning here or a night there, just having that time to be quiet with yourself, I think is really important.”
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Two months after her son Winter’s August 2019 birth, the Grammy winner opened up about her third experience with postpartum depression. “PPD is still a sneaky monkey with a machete working its way through my psyche and body and days and thoughts and bloodwork levels,” Morissette wrote in a blog post. "[I've] been here before. ... The other side is greater than my PPD-riddled-temporarily-adjusted-brain could have ever imagined: as a mom, as an artist, as a wife, as a friend, as a collaborator, as a leader, as a boss, as an activist. I saw how things got richer after I came through it the last two times. I have my eye on that prize again even as I drag my ass through the molasses.”
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After her son Ozgood's traumatic home birth in 2017, the actress was prescribed a low does of Zoloft to battle her depression. “It took me to a place where I could be. I could just be,” the Bless This Mess star said on "The Conversation With Amanda de Cadenet" podcast in September 2019. “It was rational. I needed to just be Lake and I felt, finally like, I could breathe the air that Lake breaths, not like some other person that I don’t recognize.”
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The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star revealed to fans in an Instagram Story in June 2019 that she's been to rehab twice for depression. “I started attracting negative people into my life because my thoughts were so negative,” she wrote in the post. “I got trapped in a severely unhealthy relationship that pushed me over the edge. I couldn’t get out of the relationship because I thought I was deserving of it.”
After asking mom Lisa Rinna for help, Hamlin said that she was able to get the care she needed at a facility: “I worked through traumas, and self love [sic],” she recalled. “But most importantly I learned what self respect [sic] meant.”
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Duchess Kate and Pippa Middleton’s younger brother, James, opened up about his depression to Tatler magazine in June 2019, explaining that his struggles were in part due to pressures to live up to his famous siblings. "Suddenly, and very publicly, I was being judged about whether I was a success or a failure,” he said. The entrepreneur, who had previously discussed his struggles with the Daily Mail in January, added of his depression, “It’s what keeps you in bed, while anxiety makes you feel guilty for being there. I thought, ‘What do I have to be depressed about?’ I’ve been so lucky with my upbringing, I had all the things I wanted. It’s not that I wanted more, but there was something that wasn’t always there ... And the more I ignored it, the more it was taking over.’”
James said that after undergoing therapy and stepping back from his position at his company Boomf to spend time on brother-in-law James Matthews’ Scottish estate in Glen Affric, he is doing better: “I am happy – I feel like James Middleton again. I feel like I was when I was 13, excited about life. I feel like myself again and I couldn’t ask for more."
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In a July 2019 cover story in Rolling Stone, the “Without Me” singer, born Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, confessed that she’s been committed twice since taking on her alter ego of Halsey. “It’s been my choice,” she told the magazine. “I’ve said to [my manager], ‘Hey, I’m not going to do anything bad right now, but I’m getting to the point where I’m scared that I might, so I need to go figure this out.’ It’s still happening in my body. I just know when to get in front of it.” Halsey also revealed that her next album is the first one she’s ever written while experiencing mania due to her bipolar disorder, which she was diagnosed with at the age of 17.
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The Real Housewives of New Jersey star spoke candidly about her struggle with depression in a series of Instagram Stories in June 2019. "I don’t think that it’s a joking matter. It hurts me in my everyday life. And when people judge me, it even hurts me more," she said. “So those of you who want to achieve causing others pain, you’re succeeding when it comes to me. But, I do have a long history of depression and it’s not funny. Just thought I’d share.”
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“I'm depressed and there’s no one I can talk to because there’s nothing anyone can do about it,” the singer wrote in an Instagram video on June 2019. “Life hurts.” She shared in the caption, "I self-love so hard because everything feels like rejection... it feel like the whole world be ghostin [sic] me sometimes. Sad af today. But this too shall pass."
The next day, the Big Grrrl Small World artist posted a tear-filled video. "I used sadness so constructively in the last two years. ... I've used sadness as a tool for gratitude," she explained during her statement. The rapper continued her thoughts in the caption: "I learned in the last 24hrs that being emotionally honest can save your life. Reaching out may be hard but as soon as I did it, I was immediately covered in love. ... My triggers are: rejection and inadequacy. But I love that I’m more emotionally honest lately."
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The Jane the Virgin star opened up about her long battle with depression and suicidal thoughts on June 17, which she revealed to NBC’s Kate Snow at The Kennedy Forum began when she was about 16. “I started dealing with the idea of … everything is going to be better when I’m gone. Life will be easier. All the woes will be away, all the problems. Then I wouldn't have to fail or succeed, right? Then all this surmounting pressure would go away,” she said. The Golden Globe winner, who also addressed her struggles to Shape in 2018 and on Instagram in 2017, admitting to halting production on her CW telenovela’s fifth and final season because she “was unafraid for the first time to be like, ‘I can’t.’”
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The singer appears in a PSA for Seize the Awkward, which was released in May 2019. In the video, she encourages fans to prioritize their mental health. “It doesn’t make you weak to ask for help. It doesn’t,” she says in the ad. “It doesn’t make you weak to ask for a friend to go to a therapist. It shouldn’t make you feel weak to ask anyone for help. And you should be able to ask anyone for help, everyone has to help someone if they need it.”
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The Game of Thrones star opened about her struggle with mental illness on the “Happy Place” podcast in May 2019. “Last year, in my own personal life, I think I just went through a lot of real revelations where I was like I'm not very happy doing this and pretending everything was fine,” Williams explained. “And so, that wasn't a public thing, but after going through that, now I've sort of tried to be a lot more genuine and it just becomes a lot more relaxing after that, I think. You just drop it all and that's when you can really have fun."
Although the British actress has made strides in her mental health journey, she sometimes struggles. ”I still lay in bed at like eleven o'clock at night telling myself all the things I hate about myself,” she noted. “There's still a journey, I think. But at least dropping the act and just being who you truly are, I think that's definitely a first step; not trying to be who you want me to be right now in this moment.”
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The Grammy-nominated artist revealed to fans via Twitter on April 15, 2019, that she is bipolar. “For the longest time, I didn’t understand why I felt so sick,” she wrote. “Why I felt lows that made me not want to leave my house or be around people and why I felt highs that wouldn’t let me sleep, wouldn’t let me stop working or creating music. Now I know why. I’m bipolar and I’m not ashamed anymore.”
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The “Bounce Back” rapper spoke candidly about his struggles in March 2019 ahead of his 31st birthday. “Around this time last year, around my birthday, it was good for me, but it was wild for me too because I felt like something wasn’t all the way connecting with my energy. I wasn’t feeling like myself and I couldn’t figure out why,” Sean said in a series of Instagram posts at the time. “I stepped back from everything I was doing, from everything I had going on because somewhere in the middle of it, I just felt lost. I started therapy. I got a good therapist. I was blessed enough to talk to some super spiritual people and they made me realize one thing that I was missing in my life. And one thing I was missing was clarity. Clarity about who was around me, what I was doing—even in music, which is my happiness, my joy, that was always an escape for me, was starting to feel like a burden.”
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The Game of Thrones actress opened up about her mental health struggle in an interview with Rolling Stone in March 2019. “Depression for sure, anxiety, all of those things,” she explained of what she suffers from. “I still experience it, but I had therapy, I’m on medication, and I feel so much better. The fact that I spoke to someone changed my life.”
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The “What Do You Mean?” crooner opened up about his struggle with trust issues during a joint Vogue interview in February 2019 with his wife, Hailey Baldwin. Bieber revealed at the time that he “got really depressed on tour” in 2017, and was still working through his issues. Later that month, a source told Us Weekly Bieber was “going to several doctors” for his personal struggles, clarifying that the “Sorry” crooner was “not in rehab.” The insider added: “He sees a therapist, but he’s not in a special center or anything. He doesn’t want to be dependent on medication. He struggles with ups and downs, anxiety, depression and uncertainty about the future.” The following month, Bieber reached out to fans via Instagram to ask for “prayers” as he’s “been struggling a lot.”
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The Modern Family actress revealed in December 2018 that she had suicidal thoughts after she underwent two kidney transplants amid her battle with kidney dysplasia.
“I would write letters in my head to loved ones of why I did it and my reasoning behind it, how it was nobody’s fault. I didn’t want to write it down on paper because I didn’t want anybody to find it. That’s how serious I was,” Hyland told Ellen DeGeneres in January 2019 about contemplating suicide. “I was very, very, very close.”
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The Queer Eye star told Instagram followers in August 2018 that he had attempted suicide 12 years prior. “You know, I was in a very dark place,” he said. “I just felt like life could not get any better, everything that was happening to me was never going to change, and I tried to take my own life … I want you all to know that as you see me on Queer Eye helping people with their mental health, it’s because it’s important to me … because I know so many of us suffer from mental health issues, and we just don’t know where to turn.”
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In a series of tweets in May 2017, the Riverdale star said her job on the CW drama came during the “worst depression” she’d ever experienced, yet she persevered. “When I'm feeling depressed or sad, I remind myself how far I've come. And how I didn't let my depression consume me,” she wrote at the time. “To anyone out there who feels depressed or hopeless ... do not f—king give up on yourself. You're all you've got. And you deserve the world.”
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The late-night comedian revealed his struggles with anxiety in an August 2018 interview with Rolling Stone, saying that performing eases his mind now just as it did decades ago when he was performing improv with Second City. “Creating something is what helped me from just spinning apart like an unweighted flywheel,” he said. “And I haven’t stopped since. Even when I was a writer, I always had to be in front of a camera a little bit. I have to perform.”
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The former Destiny’s Child singer told fans she was seeking help for mental health challenges in July 2018. “For years I have dedicated myself to increasing awareness of mental health and empowering people to recognize when it’s time to seek help, support and guidance from those that love and care for your wellbeing,” she wrote on Instagram. “I recently listened to the same advice I have given to thousands around the world and sought help from a great team of healthcare professionals.”
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In June 2018, the “Rhythm Nation” singer wrote in an Essence essay that she has grappled with depression in her life. “When it comes to happiness, I’m no expert,” she said. “I have only my life experience as a guide. I’ve known great happiness and great sadness.”
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In a June 2018 interview on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast, the Stranger Things star revealed he was hospitalized in a “mental asylum” after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 25. He also discussed his own brand of self-care: “Generally, people are like, ‘I need to meditate more’ or ‘I need to get into yoga.’ And I need to, like, eat a cheeseburger and just, like, smoke cigarettes and hang out. So if I write the self-help book, it’s going to be like, ‘Sit on the couch and play some video games.’”
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After rapping about his bipolar disorder diagnosis on the song “Ye,” the 21-time Grammy winner opened up about being “diagnosed with a mental condition” at age 39. “I think everybody got something,” he told Big Boy TV in June 2018. “But like I said on the album, it’s not a disability. It’s a superpower.”
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After revealing his bipolar diagnosis in April 2018, the Teen Mom OG star described his experience with the disorder in a July 2018 Snapchat. “Bi Polar is like dancing on the edge of a cliff,” he wrote. “The good moods are full of endless euphoric adrenaline, but the bad moods cause a reclusive crash with an abusive rift when there’s just too much emotions to go through & sift, which makes you trip down a long hard fall when you slip after you lose that grip once that adrenaline filled dance inevitably makes you tip.”
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The pop star was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2001 and opened up about it in an April 2018 interview with People. “I’m just in a really good place right now, where I’m comfortable discussing my struggles with bipolar II disorder,” she said. “I’m hopeful we can get to a place where the stigma is lifted from people going through anything alone. It can be incredibly isolating. It does not have to define you and I refuse to allow it to define me or control me.”
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The Disney star checked into rehab in 2010 for "emotional and physical issues" including bulimia, cutting, and bipolar disorder. "I had no idea that I was even bipolar until I went into treatment," she revealed in 2011. "I was conquering the world, but then I would come crashing down, and I would be more depressed than ever."
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The Outbreak star revealed on The Queen Latifah Show in October 2014 that she has bipolar disorder and takes medication for the condition. "For all the people that are having trouble and maybe feel bad about taking medication… it's okay — you will make it through," she said. "It's not easy but you will make it through."
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The veteran actor/director opened up about his struggle with depression after starring in the 2011 movie The Beaver, about a depressed toy company CEO. Though he told Deadline his depression had never been "really severe," he admitted to having some "low" moments. "Of course [I've battled it]," he said. "I think the majority of people do."
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The Oscar winner first revealed her bipolar II diagnosis in 2011, when she checked into a mental health facility for treatment. (She was also treated in April 2013.) Speaking about her struggles in 2012, she said she "never wanted to be the poster child" for the disorder and was just trying to handle the situation gracefully.
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The Oscar-winning Brit has admitted to suffering bouts of clinical depression at various times throughout her life. In 2010, she announced that she was taking a sabbatical to focus on her own well-being. "I find the job I do emotionally very demanding," she said in a statement. "I suffer from occasional mild depression, which I think is a very common thing."
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After losing her dad when she was 19, Deen, the bubbly Southern chef, started having panic attacks and anxiety issues that later led to a 20-year bout with depression and agoraphobia. "Some days I could get to the supermarket, but I could never go too far inside. I learned to cook with the ingredients they kept close to the door," she told the New York Times in 2007.
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After the 2003 birth of her daughter Rowan, the actress suffered a serious bout of postpartum depression for which she was later medicated. In her darkest moments, she considered suicide. "[I believed] I should not exist. The baby would be better off without me. Life was never going to get better — so I better just go," she said while accepting an advocacy award from the Hope for Depression Research Foundation. "Finally I did fight. I survived."
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The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind actor has said he took Prozac "for a long time" while battling depression. "It may have helped me out of a jam for a little bit, but people stay on it forever. I had to get off at a certain point because I realized that, you know, everything's just okay," he told CBS News in 2009. "There are peaks, there are valleys. But they're all kind of carved and smoothed out, and it feels like a low level of despair you live in."
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The Scrubs star told Parade magazine in 2007 that he felt a kinship to his somewhat melancholy character in Garden State (which he wrote and directed). "I think I suffer from some mild depression," he explained. "So to have millions of people go, 'I watched your movie and related,' was the ultimate affirmation that I'm not a freak."
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The "If It Makes You Happy" rocker is in a good place now, but several years ago, she suffered a debilitating bout of depression that lasted six months. "During some of those darkest days, I'd hardly get out of bed and just the phone ring and ring," she explained in 2003. "Small problems became insurmountable, and so I shied away from normal behavior. It seemed easier to duck out of life that way...It was a very bizarre, exhausting, and dark time."
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In an interview with Playboy in 2008, the Fall Out Boy musician said his battle with depression had brought him close to death — on more than one occasion. "The list of drugs I've been prescribed would read like a grocery list," he explained of his mental health struggles. Once, he noted, he "took a handful of Ativan," though he insists he wasn't thinking of killing himself. "I've never really called it a suicide attempt," he said. "I just wanted my head to be completely turned off."
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The action star opened up about his bipolar disorder on the 2011 British reality show Behind Closed Doors, explaining his diagnosis 13 years earlier. "Sometimes you're gonna like me, and sometimes you're gonna hate me. But what can I do? I'm not perfect," he said. "I'm an extreme bipolar, and I'm taking medication for this...When I was young, I was suffering those swing moods. In the morning, the sky was blue [when I was] going to school, and to me, the sky was black. I was so sad."
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Ron Howard's actress daughter has been open about her struggle with postpartum depression following the February 2007 birth of her son, Theodore. "It went untreated for 18 months, because I was just so ashamed and frightened," she told Us Weekly in 2013 of that time in her life. "I didn't know what it meant and didn't know what happened to me...You can't raise kids alone, you can't heal alone — you really need a community."
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The Mad Men star had a lot of dark days after losing his father at age 20. "I was...unmoored by that," he told The Observer in 2010 of his dad's death. "I struggled with chronic depression. I was in bad shape." Therapy and antidepressants helped to pull him out and give him "another perspective." "You can change your brain chemistry enough to think, 'I want to get up in the morning, I don't want to sleep until four in the afternoon,'" he explained. "Reset the auto-meter, kick-start the engine!"
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Judd wrote about her struggle with depression in the autobiography All That Is Bitter & Sweet, which also details her abusive childhood. She sought help for her troubles in 2006 by checking into the Shades of Hope Treatment Center in Texas. "I was sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I just didn't know what was wrong with me," she said on the TODAY show. " I looked really good on the outside, and I had a lot of anxiety, insomnia...I needed to find a power greater than myself..."
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The actress told Parade magazine in 2007 that she had tried to commit suicide after her 1997 split from baseball player David Justice. "I was sitting in my car, and I knew the gas was coming when I had an image of my mother finding me," she said. That image saved her life. "She sacrificed so much for her children, and to end my life would be an incredibly selfish thing to do...My sense of worth was so low. I promised myself I would never be a coward again."
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“It’s something very close to my heart. I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression since I was 10 or 11 years old. So, I think it’s a huge topic,” the “Make Me Cry” singer said on The Late Late Show with James Corden in October 2019. “One of the things that I’ve always wanted to use this platform [for] was to talk about my mental health and help young adults all around America and everywhere in the world know that they’re not alone.” She added that she wasn’t going to let her mental illness “take over my life like it has been for all of these years. I want to be able to talk about it, raise awareness and let kids all around the world know they’re not alone.”
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