a personal quest to discover, analyze, and question news and personal events relating to mental illness
In the second episode of Michelle Obama’s podcast, she admitted to struggling with “low-grade depression.”
Not just because of the quarantine, but because of the racial strife, and just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting.
The former first lady cited a routine as helpful, including “exercise, getting fresh air, and having a regular dinner time.”
Katy Perry has revealed that she is experiencing waves of depression during the pandemic. While Stephen Fry, who has been outspoken about his struggle with bipolar disorder, admitted that he’s tried to commit suicide at least 3 times.
“There’s no future. There’s no sense of anything ahead of you. And you have to hope something will stop you. In my case it was just failed attempts and waking up in a hospital.”
Fry cited music, namely Beethoven, as a coping mechanism.
Michelle Williams, singer most popularly known as part of the trio Destiny’s Child, has revealed that she struggles with depression and has struggled with depression since she was a teenager.
I had to choose to get out of bed and do whatever I needed to do to be happy.
A simplistic approach, but we’ll merely assume that Williams’s depression has been mild.
Sometimes you are going to wake up on the wrong side of the bed or some situation than might have you down in the dumps, but you have to choose to be happy.
According to The Miami Herald, Williams has not taken any medication but has used exercise, therapy, and positive thinking. But Williams isn’t anti-medication either.
Go see a professional so that they can assess you. It’s OK if you’re going through something. Depression is not OK, but it is OK to go get help.
The latest star to reveal that she’s suffered from depression and contemplated suicide is LeAnn Rimes. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Rimes confesses to cheating on her husband and admits that she had thoughts about taking her own life during the ordeal. According to the UK’s Daily Mail, the 30-year-old country singer checked into a health facility to deal with anxiety and stress after being criticized for her affair.
According to the Daily Mirror, Lady Gaga will be setting up free counseling buses at her Born This Way Ball tour. Lady Gaga said:
At the BornBrave bus you have have access to professional private or group chats about mental health, depression, bullying, school and friends. I feel like most kids don’t look for help because they feel embarrassed so mum and I wanted to break the stigmas around ‘help’ and make it fun.
Talk about a celeb being sensitive to the needs of others.
David Letterman has gone public about his struggle with depression. He admits that he was reluctant to take any antidepressant medications to help with the problem. After coming down with shingles, Letterman also developed an anxiety disorder. But he finally came to the end of himself and asked his doctor “for anything just to get rid of this depression.” No word on whether he’s doing much better, but the assumption is that he probably is.
Catherine Zeta-Jones has bravely put her face on the cover People magazine—and on the face of bipolar disorder. And in a less publicized interview, 18-year-old Demi Lovato of teen Disney fame admitted last month to People that she too also suffers from bipolar disorder.
“This is a disorder that affects millions of people and I am one of them,” the [Zeta-Jones], 41, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive statement in this week’s cover story. “If my revelation of having bipolar II has encouraged one person to seek help, then it is worth it. There is no need to suffer silently and there is no shame in seeking help.”
Last month, Lovato said:
“I never found out until I went into treatment that I was bipolar. Looking back it makes sense,” she says of her diagnosis. “There were times when I was so manic, I was writing seven songs in one night and I’d be up until 5:30 in the morning.”
I’ve said before that I’m not a fan of mental illness fads, but bipolar disorder has such a stigma attached to it that celebrities who seriously suffer from the disorder have a chance to put a face on and say “There’s no shame in getting help.” And while psychotropic drugs certainly aren’t a cure-all in conjunction with talk and behavioral therapy, bipolar disorder can be managed—not just for these celebs but also for anyone who suffers from the disorder.
Of all the celebrities I would have pegged with some kind of mental health disorder, Ms. Zeta-Jones would have never made the list. After supporting her husband Michael Douglas through his cancer treatment, she remained quiet about herself only outspoken on issues pertaining to how upbeat and positive the couple was on Douglas’s treatment.
But clearly, being a bedrock for her husband has taken its toll on her. Last week, she checked into a mental health facility seeking treatment for her bipolar II disorder. Bipolar II is characterized by frequent depressive episodes rather than a constant swing of manic-depressive ones. While only Ms. Zeta-Jones knows what’s been going on inside her mind and her heart, I can only imagine that she’s been suffering with some depression for a while but quietly put it aside as her husband struggled to become healthy again.
In the past, I’ve used the Celebrity Sensitivity feature of this blog to mock celebrities who seem to be diagnosed with nearly any mental illness fad that goes around (normally, depression), but this time my heart goes out to Ms. Zeta-Jones who decided to seek treatment for herself instead of putting on a face like everything’s okay and toughing it out.
I’ve written about fellow bipolar sufferer Pete Wentz before here. How has he managed to keep his highs and lows in check?
“In the past my brain would never stop. Now I’m a father, the world no longer revolves around me.”
I’ve always wondered whether having a child would change the way I deal with bipolar disorder. Of course, I’m not going to have a child simply as a test case in the hopes that he or she would “cure” me but I think having someone so completely dependent upon me would cause me to think twice about trying to kill myself.
Ted Haggard, the former evangelical pastor of megachurch New Life Church, recently admitted on Oprah Winfrey’s show to contemplating suicide after the public learned about his sexual encounter with a male escort.
I hope Mr. Haggard can find other resources to help him move past this difficult trial in his life so that suicide is not a fall-back option. God has an amazing way of taking broken things and piecing them back together, even if we’re the ones who cause the problem. I feel like living proof of that.
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