Out of everyone who needs mental health services, around 60% don’t receive care. This is often due to the stigma around those who have mental health illnesses.
Many people recognize stigma as an issue and a barrier to people receiving help. It’s led to more social campaigns to address the problem. Others are speaking out to spread mental health awareness.
Celebrities are a large group trying to spread awareness. They go through struggles like anyone else. It’s common that they’ll also experience stigma since they’re always in the public spotlight. But many of them know the importance of getting help and acknowledging that mental health illness is common.
Because of this, more of them are speaking out about their own experiences. They want to encourage others to seek help and let them know that they aren’t alone. With more mental health awareness from celebrities, more people can relate to them and feel more confident in getting help.
Here are 26 celebrities who are spreading mental health awareness by talking about their own experiences and how it impacts them.
Conclusion
Since stigma is such a common problem with mental health, more people are trying to reduce it. Celebrities are raising awareness by sharing their own stories so others are more comfortable getting help.
As more of them have spoken out, others feel inspired to do the same. Some take even more action by starting nonprofits for providing necessary services and ending stigma.
This reduces the fear of judgment as it becomes normalized to seek care. By hearing about how celebrities got help, others may feel like services can also benefit them. Stigma will decrease as more people speak out about how it’s okay to get care.
Glenn Close and Jessie Close
When: 2010
Where: Conscious magazine interview
What: Bring Change 2 Mind (BC2M)
“Ultimately, our society (as a whole) needs to realize the wealth of talent that is there in the community living with mental illness, and so our society needs to invest in these people — not ignore them.”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
When: June 18, 2014
Where: The Hollywood Reporter
What: Interview
“I grew up where, when a door closed, a window didn’t open. The only thing I had was cracks. I’d do everything to get through those cracks — scratch, claw, bite, push, bleed. Now the opportunity is here. The door is wide open and it’s as big as a garage.”
Lisa Nicole Carson
When: June 8, 2015
Where: Essence
What: Article by Lisa Nicole Carson
“I’m tackling the myth that African-American women have to be pillars of strength. We have the right to fall...We just have to take our mental health as seriously as we do the physical. Do not be afraid to go to a therapist or a doctor to make sure everything is fine.”
Demi Lovato
When: October 5, 2015
Where: National Council of Behavioral Health’s Hill Day
What: Be Vocal: Speak Up for Mental Health initiative
“Four out of ten people with mental illness get help. You have to wonder about the other six...I think when someone gets to rock bottom and they need a way out of that hole, the only way to get out is to surrender and ask for help.”
Hayden Panettiere
When: March 8, 2016
Where: Yahoo! Style
What: Interview about postpartum depression
“There's a societal sense of what pregnancy and postpartum should look like, and when a woman has symptoms of depression and anxiety, they often express to me feelings of guilt that they are not living up to what they 'should' be as a mother.”
Chris Evans
When: May 4, 2016
Where: RollingStone
What: Interview
“All of a sudden you’re out of your comfort zone. It’s strange. The little things that can tip you over.”
Kristen Bell
When: May 31, 2016
Where: Motto, the editors of Time magazine
What: Essay about her experiences with mental health disorders
“When you try to keep things hidden, they fester and ultimately end up revealing themselves in a far more destructive way than if you approach them with honesty. I didn’t speak publicly about my struggles with mental health for the first 15 years of my career. But now I’m at a point where I don’t believe anything should be taboo. So here I am, talking to you about what I’ve experienced.”
Zayn Malik
When: November 1, 2016
Where: The Sunday Times
What: Autobiography Zayn
“We're all human. People are often afraid to admit difficulties, but I don't believe that there should be a struggle with anything that's the truth.”
Carrie Fisher
When: November 30, 2016
Where: The Guardian
What: Column about bipolar disorder
“We have been given a challenging illness, and there is no other option than to meet those challenges. Think of it as an opportunity to be heroic — not ‘I survived living in Mosul during an attack’ heroic, but an emotional survival. An opportunity to be a good example to others who might share our disorder.”
Ryan Reynolds
When: January 3, 2017
Where: Variety
What: Interview
“Our father was tough. 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 recognized that. I was just a twitchy kid.”
Gabourey Sidibe
When: May 1, 2017
Where: Huffington Post
What: Memoir titled This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare
“I found a doctor and told her everything that was wrong with me. I’d never run down the entire list before, but as I heard myself, I could sense that dealing with this on my own was definitely no longer an option.”
Lili Reinhart
When: May 13, 2017
Where: Twitter
What: Series of Tweets
“Riverdale came into my life when I was going through the worst depression I had ever experienced. And in the end it completely saved me.”
Jon Hamm
When: June 2, 2017
Where: InStyle
What: Interview
“Medical attention is medical attention whether it’s for your elbow or for your teeth or for your brain. 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.”
Emma Stone
When: September 20, 2017
Where: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
What: Interview
“I was a very, very, very anxious child, and I had a lot of panic attacks. I benefited in a big way from therapy.”
Cara Delevingne
When: October 9, 2017
Where: This Morning
What: Interview about her book Mirror, Mirror
“I felt like it was my duty, especially now for teenagers who grow up with so much pressure and social media...there’s just so much, and I felt it was my duty to write a book that they could really connect to.”
Kesha
When: November 30, 2017
Where: TIME
What: Personal essay
“Around the holidays, I often feel like I’m supposed to be everywhere, with everyone — all with the added guilt that it’s the season of giving. To fight this, I’ve developed a mantra: It’s not selfish to take time for yourself. Take a walk in nature. Talk to a friend you trust or a therapist. Sit out one of the holiday gatherings in favor of some personal time. Just do whatever helps you calm down and gives you a break from the stress. Download one of the many meditation apps for your phone. I particularly like ‘Calm’ and ‘End Anxiety.’”
Brittany Snow
When: December 14, 2017
Where: Shape
What: Interview
“Self-esteem is figuring out what really matters to you, which often has nothing to do with the way the world sees you. It's hard because everyone feels pressure to fit in. I derive my validation from spirituality, friends, meditation, working hard, and being creative, not from looking a certain way for other people.”
Shawn Mendes
When: March 22, 2018
Where: People
What: Song “In My Blood”
“I knew people who had suffered from anxiety and found it kind of hard to understand, but then when it hits you, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, what is this? This is crazy.’ That song is complete truth and the best thing about it is, it’s not all down. The whole reason I wrote this song was to be like, at the end, ‘It’s not in my blood to do that.’”
Taraji P. Henson
When: 2018
Where: Insider
What: The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation
“Why shouldn't we talk about it? We have to. People are losing their lives in those dark secrets. So, we gotta expose it so people can live freely and be OK with not being OK. This world is a doozy.”
Billie Eilish
When: May 22, 2019
Where: Seize the Awkward
What: Campaign video
“It doesn’t make you weak to ask for help. It doesn’t. 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, and everyone has to help someone if they need it.”
Ruby Rose
When: October 10, 2019
Where: Instagram
What: Instagram post
“Today is world mental health day...What I have learned from the struggles of mental health is just how strong I am. It’s how amazing people are because they love me and support me and yet you can’t judge those who don’t understand and don’t know how to do that either. It’s that you cannot judge people at all because you can never know what they have been through. It’s that self-love and self-care is more important than anything else.”
Lauv (Ari Leff)
When: 2019
Where: iHeartRadio
What: Blue Boy Foundation
“As I started to get better and started to deal with it, I decided to take all the proceeds from ‘Sad Forever’ and through my foundation donate them to various mental health-related organizations.”
Bleta “Bebe” Rexha
When: February 25, 2020
Where: SELF
What: Interview following Tweet about mental health
“I felt like me opening up to my fans was me finally saying, ‘I’m not going to be imprisoned by this.’ And maybe it’ll make somebody not feel imprisoned, in that moment, if they feel like they’re going through a rough time. That’s why I decided to really open up and to free myself from that.”
Grant Gustin
When: April 28, 2020
Where: “Inside of You” Podcast with Michael Rosenbaum
What: Interview
“I put way too much pressure on myself early on and got in my way a lot and I think it shows, in my opinion at least, in the work, like how wound up I was and how focused I was on getting it right.”
Kevin Love
When: November 18, 2020
Where: In Depth with Graham Bensinger
What: Interview
“For most people it could be tough, but I know that there’s a whole group and a strength in numbers out there of people that are dealing with it.”
Carson Daly
When: March 4, 2021
Where: People
What: Project Healthy Minds partnership
“It felt so good to get that diagnosis, because for so long I would be driving in my car and start to get nervous and wonder if I should pull over. And now I know, 'Oh, this is happening, and wait 10 seconds and it will go away.' Being diagnosed and then talking about it just feels good.”
