May is Mental Health Awareness Month. While mental health is a discussion we all should be having all year long, it's important to erase the stigma that often surrounds the issue. Stars speaking out about their own mental health struggles helps others feel more comfortable about sharing their experiences.
Here is a small sampling of celebrities sharing their own mental health journeys.
Selena Gomez
Selena Gomez has been open about her battle with Lupus. In addition to debilitating physical symptoms, it can also cause anxiety, panic attacks and depression. So she's made the conscious decision to focus on her health and happiness. Gomez was even honored with the 2019 McLean Award for Mental Health Advocacy.
Her commitment to helping others going trough the same issues even extends to her brand Rare Beauty. Recently, the singer and actress hosted its third annual Mental Health Summit, providing resources for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis.
Bella Hadid
The model just rolled out her new fragrance brand 'Ôrəbella. It comes after Bella Hadid had taken a break from the spotlight and relocated to Texas. In an effort to help her cope with her mental and physical health (she has Lyme disease), she began focusing on things that made her happy, including cold plunges and essential oils.
The latter is what led her to create her own fragrance line. Designed for anyone, including those who have stayed away from traditional scents because most formulas use sometimes irritating alcohol to create their aromas. With the brand's new launch, Hadid is slowly stepping back into the spotlight.
Cara Delevingne
Cara Delevingne addressed her own battle with mental health in a 2015 Vogue article. The model and actress was very open about experiencing bouts of anxiety and depression.
"This is something I haven't been open about, but it's a huge part of who I am," says Delevingne. "All of a sudden I was hit with a massive wave of depression and anxiety and self-hatred, where the feelings were so painful that I would slam my head against a tree to try to knock myself out. I never cut, but I'd scratch myself to the point of bleeding. I just wanted to dematerialize and have someone sweep me away."
Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato has waged a very public battle with bipolar disorder, bulimia and drug addiction. They bravely shared their struggles via documentaries like Beyond Silence and Stay Strong. After a drug overdose in 2018, they went to rehab and kept their fans in the loop via inspirational Instagram posts.
Lovato is an advocate for mental health awareness. They even traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak in front of the National Council for Behavioral Health.
"I think it's important that people no longer look at mental illness as something taboo to talk about," they point out. "It's something that's extremely common, one in five adults has a mental illness, so basically everyone is essentially connected to this problem and this epidemic. 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 treat it like a physical illness and take it seriously."
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga has dealt with depression, anxiety and PTSD tied to a sexual assault when she was 19. She teamed up with her mom to create the Born This Way Foundation to help anyone struggling with feeling isolated or alone.
Chrissy Teigen
Chrissy Teigen is always pretty candid so it wasn't surprising that she opened up about her battle with postpartum depression. Speaking with Glamour, Teigen talked about the guilt she felt on a daily basis.
"How can I feel this way when everything is so great?" she wonders. "I've had a hard time coming to terms with that, and I hesitated to even talk about this, as everything becomes such a "thing." I also just didn't think it could happen to me. I have a great life. 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. Sometimes I still do. I'm speaking up now because I want people to know it can happen to anybody and I don't want people who have it to feel embarrassed or to feel alone."
Lizzo
Lizzo is all about self-love and acceptance, but she's also been honest about dealing with depression. She opened up to People in 2019 about her anxiety regarding her music career.
"The day I released 'Truth Hurts' was probably one of the darkest days I've had ever in my career," she admits. "I remember thinking, 'If I quit music now, nobody would notice. This is my best song ever, and nobody cares. I was like, 'F--- it, I'm done.' And a lot of people rallied; my producer, my publicist and my family, they were like, 'Just keep going because this is the darkest before the dawn.'"
Kristen Bell
Kristen Bell knows how important support is when dealing with mental health. Her mother, who's a nurse, had a very frank dialogue with her daughter about not being embarrassed or ashamed about seeking help.
"I've always had a really open and honest dialogue about that, especially with my mom, which I'm so grateful for," shares Bell in a YouTube video. "Because you have to be able to cope with it. I mean, I present that very cheery bubbly person, but I also do a lot of work, I do a lot of introspective work and I check in with myself when I need to exercise and I got on a prescription when I was really young to help with my anxiety and depression and I still take it today. And I have no shame in that because my mom had said if you start to feel this way, talk to your doctor, talk to a psychologist and see how you want to help yourself. And if you do decide to go on a prescription to help yourself, understand that the world wants to shame you for that, but in the medical community, you would never deny a diabetic his insulin. Ever. But for some reason, when someone needs a serotonin inhibitor, they're immediately crazy or something. And I don't know, it's a very interesting double standard that I often don't have the ability to talk about but I certainly feel no shame about."
Bell plans on having open and honest discussions with her children about mental health focusing on the fact that it takes strength to be vulnerable.
Kendall Jenner
Everyone thinks Kendall Jenner leads a pretty charmed life, but the model faces challenges just like everyone else. "I have such debilitating anxiety because of everything going on that I literally wake up in the middle of the night with full-on panic attacks," she admits. "Where do I even start? Everything is so horrible, it's hard to name one thing. I just think that the world needs so much love. I wish I had the power to send Cupid around the planet, as cheesy as that sounds. You go online and you see everyone saying the worst things to each other, and it's hard to stay positive. It's hard not to get eaten alive by all the negativity."
Beyoncé
Yes, even Queen Bey has dealt with mental health struggles. After Destiny's Child disbanded, she suffered from depression trying to find her place both personally and professionally. She also took a step back in 2011 after feeling disconnected with everything around her. Fortunately, her mom made sure her daughter prioritized mental health.
Emma Stone
Emma Stone actually found comfort in acting, thankfully as the star just won an Oscar for best actress for her portrayal of Bella Baxter. As a child, Stone would experience pretty regular panic attacks. Often seeking reassurance from her mom that everything would be OK. In addition to performing, Stone began going to therapy to help cope with her anxiety.
Lili Reinhart
The actress felt guilty about feeling depressed despite everything going right. Sadly, this is an all too common story. "I've been experiencing depression, even though there are these wonderful things happening in my life," she tells ELLE. "It doesn't mean that I'm not still struggling. That's important because a lot of people undermine their own depression and anxiety because they're like, 'I'm not being bullied, I have a roof over my head, nothing's necessarily going wrong.' It just happens and it's just inside of you and that's not something you should be ashamed of. It's justified because it's happening."
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey talked about her bipolar diagnosis with People in 2018. "Until recently I lived in denial and isolation and in constant fear someone would expose me," says Carey. "It was too heavy a burden to carry and I simply couldn't do that anymore. I sought and received treatment, I put positive people around me and I got back to doing what I love — writing songs and making music."
Brittney Griner
The WNBA star recently revealed that she considered suicide at the beginning of her detainment in Russia, where she was arrested for having cannabis oil. "I wanted to take my life more than once," Brittney Griner says in her new book. "I felt like leaving here so badly." She changed her mind after thinking about how her death would affect her loved ones.
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