Celebrities with Depression – You are not alone…

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Almost every illness and stigmatized social / personal behavior has a celebrity spokesperson.  Some have many.

HIV/AIDS had Magic Johnson.  Cancer has had a slew of spokespeople, including the most recent, Jennifer Aniston, who is seen on St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital commercials.

The GLBT (Gays/Lesbians/Bisexual/Transgender) community has also been blessed with many famous celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres and many politicians.

So today, in our Twitter #MHSM chat, we discussed how the depression stigma might be removed if we had an A – list celebrity spokesperson discussing mental health issues.  He or she would have to be someone that people could admire, and someone who had survived crippling depression or other mental health problems.

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I don’t know of any A-list celebrities who are mental health advocates.  I know there is a lot of talk in the media related to suicide prevention, but mental illness is much more than suicide prevention.  While suicide prevention is extremely important, there’s more to helping someone with a mental illness than making sure they don’t end their lives.  Not ending your life isn’t a sign of success while living with a mental illness.  Learning how to live and not having to face the social stigmas of having a mental health diagnosis would be much better.

Being alive and living life are two different things.

During the discussion, this article – “Depressed? 135 Famous People Who Struggled With Depression” was mentioned, and the conversation began to flow.

There are plenty of classy celebrities on the list, and admired historical figures as well.  I would love to see any of these people advocating for mental health issues like celebrities advocated for HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and 90s.

• Drew Barrymore
• Halle Berry
• Zach Braff
• Drew Carey
• Jim Carrey
• Sheryl Crow
• Janeane Garofalo
• Anne Hathaway
• Ashley Judd
• Hugh Laurie
• Sinead O’Connor – whom I believe was on Oprah discussing her mental health history
• Christina Ricci
• Brooke Shields – she spoke out after suffering from postpartum depression
• Britney Spears
• Owen Wilson

And yes, this is an actual request to the above celebrities to begin speaking out and becoming a mental health and depression activists to help reduce the social stigmas surrounding them.

Related articles

• Depression Taking Hold (alwayssick.com)
• Depression link to processed food (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Where can I get help for depression relapse? (cnn.com)
• Getting Help – A Look at Mental Illness, Jared Lee Loughner (alwayssick.com)