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Tag: celebs & mental health

  • Lady Gaga Addresses Mental Health During Grammy Speech

    Lady Gaga Addresses Mental Health During Grammy Speech

    Gaga highlighted mental health during an acceptance speech at the 2019 Grammys. 

    Mental health awareness is something that has always been close to Lady Gaga’s heart. 

    In fact, while accepting a Grammy for her co-performance of the song “Shallow” in the film A Star Is Born, Gaga took the opportunity to speak to the importance of looking out for one another. 

    “If I don’t get another chance to say this, I just want to say I’m so proud to be a part of a movie that addresses mental health issues. They’re so important,” Gaga said, according to Harper’s Bazaar. “A lot of artists deal with that. And we gotta take care of each other. So if you see somebody that’s hurting, don’t look away. And if you’re hurting, even though it might be hard, try to find that bravery within yourself to dive deep and go tell somebody and take them up in your head with you.”

    Gaga also took a moment to acknowledge Bradley Cooper, her co-star in the film, who was not present at the awards show.

    “I wish Bradley was here with me right now,” she said. “I know he wants to be here. Bradley, I loved singing this song with you.”

    This was not the first time Gaga has taken to the stage and spoke about mental health awareness. In November, according to Harper’s Bazaar, she spoke at the Patron of the Artists Award about the necessity of bringing mental health conversation to the forefront. 

    “When I speak about mental health, especially when I’m speaking about mine, it is often met with quietness,” she said. “Or maybe, a somber line of fans, waiting outside to whisper to me in the shadows about their darkest secrets. We need to bring mental health into the light.”

    In October 2018, Gaga was named one of ELLE’s Women in Hollywood. During her acceptance speech, she touched on various serious topics, including her experience with sexual assault. 

    “As a sexual assault survivor by someone in the entertainment industry, as a woman who is still not brave enough to say his name, as a woman who lives with chronic pain, as a woman who was conditioned at a very young age to listen to what men told me to do, I decided today I wanted to take the power back,” Gaga said during her speech, according to ELLE.  

    Gaga also addressed mental health during the same speech, stressing the importance of coming together. 

    “It is my personal dream that there would be a mental health expert teacher or therapist in every school in this nation and hopefully one day around the world,” Gaga added. “Let’s lift our voices. I know we are, but let’s get louder. And not just as women. But as humans.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Evan Rachel Wood Gets Candid About Psychiatric Hospital Stint At 22

    Evan Rachel Wood Gets Candid About Psychiatric Hospital Stint At 22

    The Westworld actress penned a powerful testimony about her time at a psychiatric hospital for Nylon magazine.

    Evan Rachel Wood first broke through in the movie Thirteen, where she played a troubled teenager. Wood is currently starring on the hit sci-fi show Westworld, and now she’s revealed to Nylon that she checked into a psychiatric hospital when she was 22 years old.

    Wood wrote about her experiences in an essay, where she states, “When I was 22, I willingly checked myself into a psychiatric hospital, and I have absolutely no shame about it. Looking back, it was the worst, best thing that ever happened to me.”

    Wood realized she needed help after a suicide attempt. In the morning, she called her mother: “Mom? It’s me…I just tried to kill myself…I need to go to a hospital.”

    At the time, Wood was more worried about how her mother would take her cry for help.

    “This is how much I worried about others and not myself,” she says today. “I had almost died, but the guilt and responsibility I felt toward others was so extreme.”

    Wood says, “I had collapsed under the stress and pressure of being alive.” She was suffering from PTSD, which she says was the result of suffering “multiple rapes and a severely abusive relationship that went on for years.”

    Her mother asked her why she took what could have been a final step, and Wood told her, “I just wanted some peace.”

    After some searching, Wood found a facility and checked in. She paid “a significant amount of money” for her hospital stay, and she says, “Mental health shouldn’t be a luxury for the rich. It felt like I barely made it by the skin of my teeth – and I am privileged. Imagine how hard it is with no health insurance or money or resources?”

    Wood had seen movies that dealt with mental illness like Girl, Interrupted and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, yet she thankfully realized getting help didn’t fit this Hollywood stereotype.

    After several days of rest, she finally opened up to fellow patients and would later participate in group therapy. Once she started interacting with her fellow patients, she discovered, “…We were incredibly loving and empathetic to each other, even when we disagreed or someone lost their shit. We forgave, very easily.”

    Looking back on this event, Wood says it was “the first time in my entire life” she “asked for help. I admitted I could not go on without someone intervening, to pick me back up off the floor.”

    Wood is still in therapy, and admitted, “I still struggle with PTSD, but I know that I will get through it. I have better tools now to get through what seems like the impossible times, and most importantly, I know my worth.”

    Wood writes, “There is no economic class, race, sexuality, or gender that is safe from their own mind. We know success doesn’t cure depression, we know that people telling you they love you doesn’t cure depression, we know that just thinking positively doesn’t cure depression. Depression isn’t weakness, it’s a sickness. Sometimes a deadly one. And sometimes all people need is to know that they are loved and that others are there for them. They may not take your hand right away, but knowing it’s there could save their life one day. Or who knows, you might help save your own.”

    If you or someone you know may be at risk for suicide, immediately seek help. You are not alone.

    Options include:

    Calling the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-TALK (8255)

    Calling 911

    Calling a friend or family member to stay with you until emergency medical personnel arrive to help you.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Pete Davidson Returns to SNL With Support From A Sober Star

    Pete Davidson Returns to SNL With Support From A Sober Star

    Comedian John Mulaney joined Davidson during Weekend Update where they joked about mental health, hanging out and watching The Mule.

    After a tumultuous 2018 filled with personal and professional challenges due in part to mental health conditions, comedian Pete Davidson returned to Saturday Night Live last weekend, guided by former SNL writer John Mulaney, who is in recovery. 

    The two appeared together in an interview portion of Weekend Update, where Davidson makes an appearance from time to time to discuss his personal life and sometimes his mental health for laughs. 

    “As you know, I’ve had a really crazy month and I want to talk about something that really matters to me,” Davidson told Colin Jost. 

    “Mental health?” Jost asked. 

    But no—the sketch was about the new Clint Eastwood film The Mule.

    Seeing Davidson and Mulaney side by side, Jost remarked that he didn’t know the two hung out together. 

    “We do, but a lot of time it looks like I’m Pete’s lawyer,” Mulaney said. “For real, I’ve been spending time with Pete to try to show him that you can have a life in comedy that is not insane. A sober, domestic life.”

    “And after observing John’s life I publicly threatened suicide,” Davidson retorted. “I know I shouldn’t make that joke, but it’s funny.”

    In December, Davidson was cut almost entirely from an episode of SNL because he had missed dress rehearsals, TMZ reported. Davidson reportedly was in his pajamas in his dressing room for most of the show. 

    Before that taping, Davidson posted a message on Instagram before deleting his account, saying, “I really don’t want to be on this earth anymore. I’m doing my best to stay here for you but i actually don’t know how much longer I can last,” according to Vanity Fair.

    That was concerning because Davidson has discussed his suicidal ideations in the past. His former fiancée Adriana Grande was so worried that she stopped by the set, but security refused to let her see Davidson, who had reportedly asked that Grande be kept away. 

    “I’m downstairs and I’m not going anywhere,” she tweeted to Davidson, before deleting the message. 

    However, in Saturday’s SNL return, Mulaney didn’t let the suicide comment slide without being acknowledged. 

    “Pete, look at me, look me in the eye,” he said. “You are loved by many and we are glad you’re okay.”

    Mulaney doesn’t often talk about his sobriety, although he has mentioned it occasionally. 

    “I don’t drink,” he said in his show New in Town, according to Vanity Fair. “I used to drink, then I drank too much and I had to stop. That surprises a lot of audiences because I don’t look like someone who used to do anything.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Iggy Azalea Talks Anxiety

    Iggy Azalea Talks Anxiety

    The Aussie rapper opened up about anxiety on social media.

    Australian rapper Iggy Azalea is one of many celebrities who talks about her anxiety on social media.

    In the last several months, she’s made several confessions about being antsy, and in the new year, she’s opened up about her struggles again, this time with a good combination of humor and optimism.

    In the new year, Azalea revealed on Twitter that she’s moving as well as wrapping up her new album, “[which] is giving me anxiety. But; the good kind? Sorta.”

    Yet as she also tweeted, “All my life I’ve never been scared to fall in heels because I know I have cankles & you can’t break me.”

    Like many celebrities, social media can be a double-edged sword for Azalea. Several months ago she explained on her Instagram story that public scrutiny of her love life “gives me crazy anxiety and makes me feel like I can’t have normal in passing conversations with people because everything ends up being some ‘story’ for the internet.”

    At the same time, Azalea has also used social media as a way to deal with anxiety. Earlier this year she posted on Twitter, “Say what you want about me posting pictures on instagram but honestly, it gives me something else creative i can focus on  . . . when sometimes im in a dark place or i feel stagnant . . . and maybe it’s silly, but it really has been helping me lately to feel more positive and just keep my mind in a creative space constantly thinking of new visual things and color palates. Im really glad ive got something i can do without needing permission.”

    Azalea has been open with the public about her mental health struggles in the past, telling Billboard that she was inspired by Demi Lovato to get help. She’s also written a song about her mental challenges, “Savior,” which she performed live as a duet with Lovato.

    Yet as she heads into the new year, Azalea feels a lot more optimistic about her future and is “excited” because she signed “my new deal/partnership! 2.7 mil, can sign others, own my masters + 100% independent – I’m feeling like such a bossy grown ass b***h today!”

    Her last tweet can be interpreted in several different ways, but perhaps it’s a message that she wants to concentrate on her mental wellness: “Time to get back to ME.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Idris Elba's Daughter Details Helping Mom With Mental Health

    Idris Elba's Daughter Details Helping Mom With Mental Health

    Isan Elba’s mother Hanne is living with bipolar disorder and depression. 

    British actor Idris Elba has had a remarkable acting career, from playing Heimdall in Thor and Roland in The Dark Tower, to being hailed People’s Sexiest Man Alive.

    Elba’s daughter, 17-year-old Isan, is also successful in her own right as an ambassador to the Golden Globes, and she’s using her position to raise awareness about mental health.

    As People explains, Isan’s ambassador role is a personal one because her mother, Hanne “Kim” Norgaard, suffers from mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety.

    At a luncheon in Beverly Hills, Isan explained, “It was only about two years ago that my mom opened up to me. I’m not going to lie, it’s a struggle every day. It’s a learning lesson for me, but it’s hard. Mental health is something that’s hard to deal with. We just sat down and talked about it, and I think that was better for her, talking about it and talking about it with someone who means the most in her life and just getting that out.”

    Once Isan learned what her mother was going through, “It was like, ‘Whoa.’ . . . It was definitely a learning curve. I’m so much closer to my mom now because I know what she’s going through.”

    At the luncheon, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made the announcement that $50,000 would be donated to the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation in Isan’s name. As the Henson Foundation website states, their goal “is to eradicate the stigma around mental health issues in the African-American community.”

    “Mental health, specifically among African Americans and my peers in particular, is something I really want to be more vocal about,” Isan said. “There’s this perceived stigma and I’ve seen friends struggle. We need to empower young people to not be afraid to ask for help.”

    Isan told Variety, “Being able to have this platform, and talk about something that I care about that hits home, was really like, ‘Yes, I have to do this.’ It’s something I care about and like I said, using your influence to talk about something you care about or an issue that needs to be fixed, I thought it was the perfect opportunity.”

    Isan also explained that after the luncheon, “[She] will still continue to advocate for mental health. And in the African-American community and among teenagers, because I’m both, and it’s such taboo in both communities.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Rep. Dan Crenshaw Checks On Pete Davidson After Mental Health Scare

    Rep. Dan Crenshaw Checks On Pete Davidson After Mental Health Scare

    After Pete Davidson made a concerning mental health post on Instagram, Rep. Dan Crenshaw called him to offer his support.

    Despite being mocked by Pete Davidson about a month ago, Texas Rep.-elect and veteran Dan Crenshaw recently reached out to the comedian after Davidson made a concerning post on Instagram. 

    According to The Washington Post, Davidson’s post read, “i really don’t want to be on this earth anymore. i’m doing my best to stay here for you but i actually don’t know how much longer i can last. all i’ve ever tried to do was help people. just remember i told you so.”

    After seeing the post, Crenshaw called Davidson to check in on him, the Post reports. 

    “It was pretty devastating,” Crenshaw told NBC affiliate KPRC. “You don’t want to see somebody in that kind of position to the point where they’re actually putting out a cry for help on social media. That’s not a good place to be in.”



    “We don’t go back very far. We’re not good friends. But I think he appreciated hearing from me,” Crenshaw added. “What I told him was this: Everybody has a purpose in this world. God put you here for a reason. It’s your job to find that purpose — and you should live that way.”



    Davidson raised controversy after an SNL segment where he made fun of the fact that Crenshaw wears an eyepatch. Crenshaw wears the eyepatch because he lost his right eye due to a blast during a 2012 tour in Afghanistan. 

    There was extensive backlash from Davidson’s comments, the Post states, and eventually he apologized on air for his behavior, as well as in person to Crenshaw.

    “I made a joke about Lieutenant Commander Dan Crenshaw, and on behalf of the show and myself, I apologize,” Davidson said, according to the Post. “I mean this from the bottom of my heart. It was a poor choice of words. . . . The man is a war hero, and he deserves all the respect in the world.”

    This is not Davidson’s first social media post drawing attention to his mental health. He has discussed it openly, including his diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. He recently posted about being the victim of online bullying. 

    According to Crenshaw, he told Davidson, “Know that you have value and that you do more good than you realize for people.”


    “Especially a guy like that,” Crenshaw told KPRC. “He makes people laugh. Sometimes he makes people mad — but he makes people laugh a lot. And that’s what we talked about. It was a good conversation.”

    According to the Post, the NYPD also confirmed making a wellness check on Davidson after being alerted about the post. 

    Some celebrities and fans also reached out to Davidson. Among them were rapper Nicki Minaj, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, TV personality Meghan McCain and rapper Machine Gun Kelly, according to the Post.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Sarah Hyland Talks About Depression That Came From Chronic Illness

    Sarah Hyland Talks About Depression That Came From Chronic Illness

    The Modern Family star suffers from kidney dysplasia, and she’s been battling it alongside the depression that comes with it.

    Sarah Hyland, who plays Haley Dunphy on Modern Family, has gone through serious trials and tribulations with her health. Now she’s talking to Self about how she’s been battling the depression that can come with a chronic illness.

    Hyland suffers from kidney dysplasia, an illness she was born with. Her kidneys weren’t fully developed when she was forming in the womb. (Dysplasia causes the kidneys to develop cysts, which stops the kidneys from filtering out waste from the bloodstream.) Hyland has had to endure about 16 surgeries, including six trips to the operating room in the last 16 months, and two kidney transplants.

    Hyland got a kidney from her father, but her body rejected the organ and she had to go on dialysis, which she had to do three times a week for four hours each visit. (Hyland also got another kidney from her brother Ian.)

    Hyland has been able to fit her dialysis treatments around her Modern Family shooting schedule, and as she told Self, “That’s why I’m so independent. In some areas of my life, I literally have no choice but to be dependent. I’ve been going through this for 28 years, and I still am learning how to let go of control and how to be patient.”

    Hyland’s health problems would eventually take a toll on her mental health as well. “I was very depressed,” she explains. “When a family member gives you a second chance at life, and it fails, it almost feels like it’s your fault. It’s not. But it does. . . . For a long time, I was contemplating suicide, because I didn’t want to fail my little brother like I failed my dad.”

    Hyland felt like she was a burden to her family, “always having to be looked after, having to be cared for,” which was a distortion because her family didn’t feel that way towards her at all.

    Eventually Hyland reached out and talked about her suicidal thoughts with a close friend. “It’s not shameful,” she continues. “For anybody that wants to reach out to somebody but doesn’t really know how because they’re too proud or they think that they’ll be looked upon as weak, it’s not a shameful thing to say.”

    In addition to finding comfort with her pet dogs, who give her unconditional love, Hyland also feels, “My work is my therapy. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my work.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Ellen DeGeneres Reveals Depression Struggle

    Ellen DeGeneres Reveals Depression Struggle

    The week of the release of her new Netflix stand-up special, Relatable, Ellen DeGeneres is speaking openly about her struggles with depression.

    The talk show host and comedienne told USA Today that she was depressed and felt alienated after she famously came out of the closet, and she fought back against it through “meditation and being quiet. For a long time, there was a lot of fear that (being gay) was going to influence people’s opinions about me and so I didn’t ever have the confidence I should have had. Because whenever you carry shame around, you just can’t possibly be a confident person.”

    On the Armchair Expert podcast, DeGeneres said, “Because there was so much talk about [coming out] . . . Even Elton John said, ‘Shut up already. We know you’re gay. Be funny.’ I had never met him and I thought, ‘What kind of support is that from a gay person?”

    When her show, Ellen, finally went off the air, DeGeneres spiraled deeper. “I was looked at as a failure in this business. No one would touch me. I had no agent, no possibility of a job, I had nothing.”

    DeGeneres said, “It took a while to shake off that judgment and the attacks I felt . . . I was fully honest with myself and that gave me confidence. I think that helps with depression. Depression eats away at your confidence and you get lost in that, and forget that you’re enough just as you are.”

    When she moved out to the industry town of Los Angeles, DeGeneres felt more isolated and reluctant to reach out to others for help. “If you ever have experienced depression, you isolate yourself and don’t reach out for help. You don’t say, ‘I’m hurting, I need help’ – you kind of crawl further into that dark hole, so that’s where I was for a while.”

    In addition to meditation, DeGeneres told Good Housekeeping she “started seeing a therapist and had to go on anti-depressants for the first time in my life . . . I slowly started to climb out of it. I can’t believe I came back from that point. I can’t believe where my life is now.”

    DeGeneres says her new special is called Relatable because even though she’s a celebrity, “we’re all relatable. I didn’t have money for a long, long time. I’ve been doing this (talk) show for a long time and now I do have money, but I’ve always been the same person. Just because we have different experiences, at the core we’re all the same.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Ariana Grande: Therapy Saved My Life So Many Times

    Ariana Grande: Therapy Saved My Life So Many Times

    “I’ve got a lot of work to do but it’s a start to even be aware that it’s possible.”

    Singer Ariana Grande has had quite a few painful moments over the last 18 months. From the Manchester Arena bombing at her May 2017 concert to losing her ex-boyfriend, rapper Mac Miller, to a drug overdose in September—life hasn’t been easy for the 25-year-old pop star.

    On Monday, Grande lent some words of encouragement for people who may benefit from counseling. Responding to a tweet, she said, “In all honesty, therapy has saved my life so many times. If you’re afraid to ask for help, don’t be. You don’t have to be in constant pain and you can process trauma. I’ve got a lot of work to do but it’s a start to even be aware that it’s possible.”

    Grande has not shied from talking about her own battles. In an emotional interview with Ebro Darden of Beats 1 radio in August, the singer emphasized the importance of helping one another through the good and the bad.

    She said that her song “Get Well Soon” is about “just being there for each other and helping each other through scary times and anxiety. We just have to be there for each other as much as we can because you never fucking know.”

    She added that the song, which appears on her latest album Sweetener, is “also about personal demons and anxiety, more intimate tragedies as well. Mental health is so important. People don’t pay enough mind to it… People don’t pay attention to what’s happening inside.”

    Not only did she lose her ex-boyfriend Mac Miller (born Malcolm McCormick)—who she called “my dearest friend”—this year, she was the target of shame and blame from some misguided individuals.

    Responding to Mac fans who blamed her for triggering his fatal overdose, she said, “I am not a babysitter or a mother and no woman should feel that they need to be. I have cared for him and tried to support his sobriety and prayed for his balance for years (and always will of course) but shaming/blaming women for a man’s inability to keep it together is a very major problem.”

    A medical examiner confirmed this week that the Pittsburgh rapper had died from mixed drug toxicity of fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol.

    McCormick was candid about his drug use, and seemed to struggle to find a balance. In a 2015 interview with Billboard, he said, “I’m not doing as many drugs. It just eats at your mind, doing drugs every single day, every second. It’s rough on your body.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Keira Knightley Talks PTSD, Dealing With Early Fame

    Keira Knightley Talks PTSD, Dealing With Early Fame

    In a new interview, Knightley revealed the toll that sudden fame took on her mental health after the box office success of Pirates of the Caribbean.

    Keira Knightley first broke through to stardom with the film Bend It Like Beckham in 2002, then she hit the jackpot with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. But early fame was very difficult for her to handle, and as she tells The Hollywood Reporter, she was diagnosed with PTSD after having “a mental breakdown at 22.”

    Knightley says the run of Pirates sequels “was completely insane – from the outside you’re like, ‘Whoa, that was hit after hit after hit!’ But from the inside, all you’re hearing is the criticism.”

    Knightley’s insecurities about being a young actress festered. “I was aware that I didn’t know what I was doing, you know? I didn’t know my trade, I didn’t know my craft. I knew that there was something that worked sometimes, but I didn’t know how to kind of capture that.”

    Being in the tabloids was hard to deal with as well. “I didn’t handle it well,” she reveals. “It was a really rude awakening to he world of misogyny…I never experienced that level of hatred on a day-to-day basis. There was a sense of, like, battle every day of leaving the house.”

    After Knightley suffered her mental breakdown at 22, “I did take a year off there and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder because of all that stuff.”

    Knightley traveled for a year, saying it “gave me that space I needed to be able to start again. I felt pretty much like I sort of didn’t exist and I was this weird creature with this weird face that people seemed to respond to in quite an extreme way, and I couldn’t quite figure any of it out.”

    Knightley also felt her family helped her through this dark time in her life, and she adds, “I can really enjoy things now. I look back and I just sort of want to give myself a hug and be like, ‘Oh, you’re doing all right, you’ll be all right.’”

    In 2015, Knightley spoke to Elle about therapy. “I highly recommended it. I don’t do it at the moment. But in my early 20s when I found everything completely overwhelming, 100%, I did it! I think when you’re in those moments in your life, and you want to get through them…you have to do whatever it is to help you get over it. You have to give it a go. Try anything that might help.” 

    View the original article at thefix.com