Carson Daly
When basketball star Kevin Love came on Today to share his experience having a panic attack during a game, Daly realized that he had the exact same experience while hosting MTV’s Total Request Live years ago. The conversation inspired him to open up about his own mental health journey and experiences with anxiety.
“I’ve suffered for over 20 years with, at times, debilitating anxiety and panic, and never knew it. I never knew how to define it,” Daly told PEOPLE. “After finally opening up to friends, one of them had a history of anxiety, and looked at me and was like, ‘You have anxiety.’ ”
The star went on to go to therapy to learn more about mental illness and how to manage it in a healthy way.
Daly is now working to help others struggling with mental illness and has joined forces with Project Healthy Minds to help end the stigma and also provide easier access to resources through technology.
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J Balvin
The Colombian reggaeton star said in November 2020 that his recent social media break has been due to “anxiety and some depression.”
“Like any human being, I’ve had some challenges,” the singer said in Spanish in a video on Instagram. “This time it’s anxiety and some depression.”
“I don’t like acting or faking my happiness or that everything is perfect,” he added. “I’m like any human being. I’m fragile and vulnerable, possibly more than all of you.”
He then thanked his fans for staying connected.
“Soon, the storm will pass and I’ll be back cracking jokes with you all,” he said. “I’m not here to act but to be real and share what I’m feeling in the moment.”
He ended the video with a peace sign (and his real first name), saying “I love you all. Jose.”
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Brittany Snow
The Almost Family actress opened up to PEOPLE in October 2007 about her struggles with anorexia, depression and self-harm, and admitted that the public’s reaction to her honesty was “awful.” So awful, in fact, that Snow developed severe anxiety and decided to take a break from the spotlight.
Then in October 2019, the star told InStyle that she’s glad the stigma around mental illness is changing. “So many people are so open with their stories, and it’s very, very cool and accepted that people are sharing their truth.”
She continued: “I might’ve spoken too early, but at the same time, it started and was the impetus for so many changes in my life that have worked out really well, so it’s okay.”
Ultimately, Snow is proud of herself for being open. “I think that that’s a really nice thing to feel like I was a part of, where I can tell my daughter one day, ‘I was really honest when a lot of people weren’t being honest,'” she added. “In my thirties, I can confidently say that it’s almost like another life that I look back and [say], ‘Wow, I was so anxious and scared, and now I’m just not.'”
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Noah Cyrus
The singer and younger sister of Miley Cyrus told James Corden on The Late Late Show that her struggle with depression and anxiety inspired her to create an apparel line, the LONELY collection. The line was launched in partnership with The Crystal Campaign to support The Jed Foundation — a nonprofit that protects emotional health and helps prevent suicide for teens and young adults across America. “It’s something very close to my heart,” Cyrus said of her decision.
“I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression since I was 10 or 11 years old. So, I think it’s a huge topic,” she continued. “One of the things that I’ve always wanted to use this platform [for] was to talk about my mental health and help young adults all around America and everywhere in the world know that they’re not alone.”
“The End of Everything” singer has previously opened up about how her depression has shaped her music.
“This EP is mostly just about how my emotions have been, and about my anxiety, and about how I’ve been struggling with depression, and how it’s okay to feel those feelings,” she explained during an interview with L’Officiel USA.
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Lizzo
Though the rapper is known for her sunny disposition, she struggles with depression and has been extremely candid about it on social media.
In fact, the “Truth Hurts” singer told PEOPLE, her depression got so bad that she considered leaving music.
“The day I released ‘Truth Hurts’ was probably one of the darkest days I’ve had ever in my career. I remember thinking, ‘If I quit music now, nobody would notice. This is my best song ever, and nobody cares,’” Lizzo recalled.
“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.’”
She said of the experience: “Now the song that made me want to quit is the song that everyone’s falling in love with me for, which is such a testament to journeys: Your darkest day turns into your brightest triumph.”
Her advice to fans is to give themselves some self-love. “I practice self-love,” Lizzo said, “I look in the mirror and say, ‘I love you. You’re beautiful. You can do anything.’ Tell yourself that on your happy days so that you have the strength to tell yourself that on your darker days.”
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Jonathan Van Ness
The Queer Eye star opened up to the Trevor Project in October 2019 about his struggle with depression and anxiety, and how he has learned to process both in a healthy way.
“Depression is not as easy as saying, ‘Just find your joy and you’re going to become happy.’ That was never my experience,” he said. “When we’re identified fully with our depression, it will say, ‘You have no joy, you have no way out.’ There will be a negative, internal critic in our mind that we need to be able to dissociate from and pull ourselves away from.”
Van Ness believes having a support system or someone who can make you realize that you are not alone is extremely important to keep you from feeling shame.
Van Ness explained, “When we’re able to share with someone who we do feel safe with, we can realize that these things that are happening to us don’t make us unloveable and aren’t anything to have as a huge secret and don’t make our future dark and dreary. Actually, we have a really gorgeous future and we deserve love and safety.”
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Selena Gomez
The singer opened up about her mental health when she was awarded the 2019 McLean Award for Mental Health Advocacy. In October 2018, the singer announced that she would be taking a social media break and checked herself into a facility for help with her mental health. A year later, Gomez decided to share her experience.
She said in her acceptance speech, “I think that we are better when we tell the truth and, so, this is my truth: Last year, I was suffering mentally and emotionally, and I wasn’t able to stay all that kept together. I wasn’t able to hold a smile or to keep things normal.”
The singer added, “It felt like all of my pain and anxiety washed over me all at once and it was one of the scariest moments of my life.”
But with help from doctors, Gomez was finally able to get a clear diagnosis and begin to understand her anxiety and depression.
As for why she decided to share what she went through? “For me, it feels right to share that I have personally felt the effects of both depression and anxiety — but it isn’t easy. I have feared being misunderstood and judged,” she explained. “I know that I have been given experiences and people and opportunities that have made my life exceptionally beautiful and sweet — and yet I struggle with my own thoughts and feelings at times. But this doesn’t make me faulty. This does not make me weak. This does not make me less than. This makes me human. We need help, and we need each other.”
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Kristen Bell
The Good Place actress revealed how she planned to talk to her two children about mental health.
She told Women’s Health, “I’ll make sure our dialogue around the house is what it has been for a while, which is that vulnerability equals strength.”
She continued, “Whether it’s daddy who goes to AA or mommy who has mental health – she has to check in with it.”
In another interview with Off Camera, Bell credited her mom with teaching her that it is okay to struggle with your mental health. “[My mom’s] a nurse and she had the wherewithal to recognize that in herself … when I was 18 she said, ‘If you start to feel like you are twisting things around you, and you feel like there is no sunlight around you, and you are paralyzed with fear, this is what it is and here’s how you can help yourself.’ “
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Taraji P. Henson
The Oscar-nominated actress is a huge advocate for mental health, particularly as it pertains to the African-American community. The star even started the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation, named after her late father who struggled with his own mental health, to raise awareness about the issue.
Henson told Essence, “I’ve experienced mental illness in my family. I’ve certainly seen it in the community and even in the workplace. When it comes to African-American people, we don’t deal with it. We pray about it, we shun it, we just don’t talk about it. How are we going to help ourselves if we don’t allow ourselves to be vulnerable?”
Henson also spoke about women’s mental health in particular, “The mindset of the strong black woman [is], ‘I don’t need your help. I can do it myself. I can carry all ten bags and my baby.’ But that’s not the position. It’s okay to need help. It’s okay to be vulnerable … It’s okay not to be strong sometimes.”
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Olivia Culpo
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The model got candid about her past battle with depression on Instagram. Culpo reflected on the hardships she faced in the last few months, in part by comparing two selfies that were taken then and now, to stress to her followers that “it’s ok to not be ok” and to embrace their imperfections.
“Looking at the difference between these two photos today, and thought it was important to share something with all of you. 2nd photo, a few months ago: I was depressed. I had no appetite, was drinking way too much, smoking, couldn’t sleep, and couldn’t eat,” she admitted of the second photo, which showed a paler, thinner Culpo pouting for the camera.
“1st photo is from the other day, and I am looking healthier. I have my appetite back and am treating my body correctly,” she added of the other selfie that features Culpo with more color in her face and appearing healthier overall.
In a final note, Culpo encouraged her followers to keep moving forward, noting that embracing imperfections will help connect us all.
“Our imperfections/hardships make us all perfectly relatable, taking this journey through life together,” Culpo added. “I think the more we understand how connected that makes all of us, the easier and more rewarding this life journey can be. Love you guys!!!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️”
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Janet Jackson
The singer appeared on the July/August 2018 edition of Essence — dubbed “The Happiness issue” — and told the magazine about her own journey to finding her joy through the years.
She shared that her deepest sadness began in her 30s. “The struggle was intense. I could analyze the source of my depression forever,” she explained. “Low self-esteem might be rooted in childhood feelings of inferiority. It could relate to failing to meet impossibly high standards. And of course there are always the societal issues of racism and sexism. Put it all together and depression is a tenacious and scary condition.”
Her 40s were no less difficult. “Happiness was elusive. A reunion with old friends might make me happy,” she said. “A call from a colleague might make me happy. But because sometimes I saw my failed relationships as my fault, I easily fell into despair.”
But things have been looking up for the new mom. Now, Jackson says his son Eissa Al Mana has been a source of true joy.
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Ariana Grande
In an interview with Vogue U.K., the singer opened up about her battle with PTSD and anxiety following the bombing at a Manchester, U.K. concert venue while she was performing.
“I think a lot of people have anxiety, especially right now,” she said. “My anxiety has anxiety … I’ve always had anxiety. I’ve never really spoken about it because I thought everyone had it, but when I got home from tour it was the most severe I think it’s ever been.”
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Mayim Bialik
As part of the Child Mind Institute’s #MyYoungerSelf campaign in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, the Big Bang Theory star got candid about her struggle with depression.
“I think what I would have liked to tell my younger self about my mental health is that there are answers,” she said in her video. “For me, some of those answers I had to wait years to find and I needed to get different help, which ended up being really the right kind of help.”
“But I had this notion when I was younger that if something didn’t work once, or if a therapist didn’t work, or if a medication didn’t work, that nothing would ever work,” she added. “I wish I could have told my younger self that something will work — it’s just going to take sometimes more research, sometimes more referrals, and really figuring things out like your life depends on it. Because for me, it did.”
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Camila Cabello
The “Havana” singer opened up about her battle with obsessive-compulsive disorder in a candid interview with Cosmopolitan U.K. for their June cover story.
“OCD is weird. I laugh about it now,” Cabello told the outlet. “Everybody has different ways of handling stress. And, for me, if I get really stressed about something, I’ll start to have the same thought over and over again, and no matter how many times I get to the resolution, I feel like something bad is about to happen if I don’t keep thinking about it.”
Her diagnosis and family’s support has helped her to feel more in control, she explains, “To the point where I’m just like, ‘Aha! OK, this is just my OCD.’ I’ll ask my mom a question for the fourth time and she’ll be like, ‘That’s OCD. You’ve got to let it go.'”
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Busy Philipps
In a 2018 issue of PEOPLE, the I Feel Pretty actress reflected on her social anxiety and the postpartum anxiety she suffered from after the birth of her first child.
“I was barely holding it together,” she said. “I didn’t want anyone else touching [my daughter]. I felt like I was the only one that could help or soothe her. That was a hard time.”
Busy revealed that Courteney Cox then gave her life-changing advice while they were working on Cougar Town together. “Courteney was like, ‘I think you should talk to a doctor about medication,’” which the actress did. She took antidepressants for around a year and a half afterwards, which helped her move through that difficult time.
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Mariah Carey
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the singer opened up for the first time about her struggle with bipolar disorder.
“Until recently I lived in denial and isolation and in constant fear someone would expose me,” she explained. “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.”
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Shawn Mendes
“It was kind of something that hit me within the last year. Before that, growing up, I was a pretty calm kid, super steady,” Mendes told Beats 1’s Zane Lowe of his secret struggle with anxiety.
“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 [‘In My Blood’] was to be like, at the end, ‘It’s not in my blood to do that.’”
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Bella Hadid
While stopping by to meet with a group of aspiring models for Lifetime’s new series, Making a Model with Yolanda Hadid, Hadid opened up about her experience with anxiety.
“Believe me, I get it and I understand it,” she admitted when one of the contestants, Makenzie, revealed she struggles with social anxiety disorder. “I was totally there. My sister [Gigi Hadid] is very bubbly and very out there, and I was always very reserved. I would literally start crying and shaking if I had to do interviews at red carpet events. It was really nerve-racking and it’s scary, and it’s not only you.”
“It gets a lot better once you have to talk to people every day,” she added. “Then you’re like, ‘Okay, I guess it’s my job, I have to do it!’ ”
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Rick Springfield
The “Jessie’s Girl” singer opened up about his lifelong battle with depression in an interview on SiriusXM’s Feedback in January 2018, and shared that he struggled with thoughts of suicide.
“‘Suicide Manifesto’ is stuff I think about. I’ve been close to it,” he said about his forthcoming song from his new album, The Snake King. “When Robin Williams and Chester [Bennington and Chris Cornell] and those guys … I didn’t go, ‘Oh that’s terrible.’ I went, ‘I get it.’ I get being that lost and dark.”
He added: “You’re in so much pain that you just want it to end. I have been there and I know what it’s like and I understand. It’s just part of your makeup.”
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Ginger Zee
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the Good Morning America chief meteorologist opened up about her crippling battle with depression and her suicide attempt at 21 years old. “Depression for me has been a couple of different things — but the first time I felt it, I felt helpless, hopeless and things I had never felt before,” she shared. “I lost myself and my will to live.”
Her life changed a few years ago when she met a therapist who “changed everything” — and has been working with him ever since. “I’m now focused on not just myself, but on keeping my family happy and healthy,” she revealed. “You have bigger things than [your own problems]. That has helped a lot — being a mother has helped incredibly.”
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Lili Reinhart
The Riverdale actress opened up about her battle with anxiety in an interview with W magazine, where she explained that she had to flee Los Angeles and move back in with her parents in North Carolina to get a handle on her mental health. “I felt like my world was crashing,” she said, adding that she was working at a restaurant on top of auditioning as much as possible before landing her current role in Riverdale. “I didn’t want to admit defeat, but I was like, ‘I need to come home. My mental health is suffering, and it is making me physically ill.’ ”
Back home, the actress returned to a therapist who she had previously seen and began taking medication for her anxiety. “She really helped me build myself back up again,” Reinhart said.
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Pete Davidson
“I found out I have BPD, which is borderline personality disorder,” the Saturday Night Live alum explained on the WTF With Marc Maron podcast, adding that he’s experienced mental breakdowns that would leave him in a blind rage. “One of my psychiatrists [diagnosed me]. He was always saying before this big meltdown, ‘You’re probably bipolar or borderline, we’re just going to have to figure it out.’ “
Though he now has a diagnosis, Davidson is still figuring out how to handle the disorder, and added that he’s “depressed all the time.” He now goes to regular therapy sessions and is on a new medication.
“It is working, slowly but surely,” Davidson said. “I’ve been having a lot of problems. This whole year has been a f—— nightmare. This has been the worst year of my life, getting diagnosed with this and trying to figure out how to learn with this and live with this.”
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James Franco
Immediately after overcoming addictions as a 17 year old, Franco turned to acting, which he revealed became like an addiction. “I really threw myself into it, and that became everything, to the point where I didn’t even socialize,” he explained to OUT magazine. “And then after, like, 10 years of that, at age 27, I realized, ‘Man, I’m so depressed. On the surface my life seems pretty good—I have a career and everything— but I feel isolated and lonely.’”
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Elle King
The “Ex’s and Oh’s” singer revealed on Instagram that she has been struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. “… Today, while working through my PTSD with my doc, I felt that door inside of me open up just a little bit more,” King wrote. “It used to be covered in caution tape and red lights flashing DO NOT OPEN. But I felt a cool little breeze and it wasn’t as scary peeping through.”
She goes on to explain how she is making “healthy choices” and practicing self care, admitting, “In those times all I had to do was refocus and take back control of MY OWN MIND … Today, if presented with two options, I will CHOOSE the one that is most beneficial and happy for me right then and there,” King shared, promising that she is “definitely going to love” herself.
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Gina Rodriguez
The Jane the Virgin star opened up about her long battle with anxiety in an Instagram post that featured a short video of the actress — barefaced and staring at the camera, as part of photographer Anton Soggiu’s Ten Second Portraits series. “I suffer from anxiety. And watching this clip I could see how anxious I was but I empathize with myself. I wanted to protect her and tell her it’s ok to be anxious, there is nothing different or strange about having anxiety and I will prevail,” Rodriguez wrote. “I like watching this video. It makes me uncomfortable but there is a freedom I feel maybe even an acceptance. This is me.”
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Gabourey Sidibe
After a years-long battle with depression and panic attacks, the actress and author of This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare decided to get some help in the form of a therapist and doctor, who prescribed her an antidepressant to better manage her mental health.
“I just accepted depression as something that’s part of my anatomy; it’s part of my chemistry, it’s part of my biology,” Sidibe told PEOPLE. “When it’s too big for me to just turn around on my own, I see a therapist. I see a therapist anyway. We all should see a therapist. If only for the hour a week that you can talk about yourself and not worry about monopolizing the conversation? F—ing do it, it’s worth it!”
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Elizabeth Vargas
The ABC News Anchor spoke candidly about her lifelong battle with anxiety for a new campaign with the Child Mind Institute, a nonprofit that works with children struggling with mental health and learning disorders.
“My earliest memories as a little girl are infused and filled with worry and fear,” Vargas said in a PEOPLE exclusive video discussing her battle, citing her father’s deployment to Vietnam when she was 6 years old as the root of her panic attacks.
“I couldn’t control it and I couldn’t explain why I would sob and cry and plead and beg for my mom not to leave me every day,” she said. “This wasn’t a time when people were paying a lot of attention to the children of soldiers at war. No one asked me why I was panicking and I kept my panic a secret. I felt ashamed of it. I hid it as I grew older.”
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Ryan Tedder
In a Facebook post, Tedder opened up about his band OneRepublic’s four-month hiatus, attributing the break to anxiety. “I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, not sleeping, on meds, not happy, anxiety on a crippling level and it was triggered from sheer exhaustion,” wrote the OneRepublic frontman, detailing the band’s nearly nonstop schedule since they formed a decade ago.
“I called my manager and said ‘pull the plug’ … cancel tv’s cancel promo, cancel the single, cancel the album,” he added. “At the time we had a tour planned for the US in February, straight into Europe and then the rest of the world. We were gonna be gone again, for ages. The thought of it literally sent me into a sweat and made me feel like I was going to have a heart attack. Crippling anxiety. It also made me stop writing songs. I didn’t have the motivation or joy necessary to. That’s over now.”
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Prince Harry
“I can safely say that losing my mom at the age of 12 and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years has had quite a serious effect on not only my personal life, but also my work as well,” the royal said, opening up to The Telegraph about losing his mom, Princess Diana. “My way of dealing with it was sticking my head in the sand, refusing to ever think about my mum because why would that help?”
It took 17 years before Prince Harry seeked out help, eventually going to counseling, where he was able to finally open up. “I’ve now been able to take my work seriously, and take my private life seriously, as well, and be able to put blood, sweat and tears into the things that really make a difference,” he added. “Invictus would have never gotten off the ground if I hadn’t dealt with all that stuff beforehand.”
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Jonathan Lipnicki
The former Jerry Maguire child star wrote a moving Instagram post with the hope of helping others who struggle. “As a kid/teen I was made fun of relentlessly by some people who are now even my friends on FB. I was told I was a has-been and would never book a job again,” he shared. “I was made to feel like garbage every day of middle school to the point where I had a panic attack every night before school, because I wondered how I would get through the day. It was humiliating.” He added, “I’m not a victim, I’m a survivor and kids will hopefully see that they can be too.”
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Gillian Anderson
After releasing a self-help book called We: A Manifesto for Women Everywhere, the actress talked to The Guardian about her struggles with mental health and her road to recovery. Anderson’s anxiety stems back to her youth, when she began therapy at age 14 and was voted “Most Likely to Get Arrested” by her high school classmates — a superlative she quickly proved to be correct when she was caught breaking into her school on the night of graduation. Her new book details many occasions when her mental health problems took over, sometimes leaving her wanting to isolate herself from the outside world. “There were times when it was really bad,” she revealed. “There have been times in my life where I haven’t wanted to leave the house.”
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Chrissy Teigen
Teigen got very personal in the April 2017 issue of Glamour, penning an essay in which she opened up about struggling with postpartum depression and anxiety after Luna’s birth. “Getting out of bed to get to set on time was painful. My lower back throbbed; my shoulders — even my wrists — hurt. I didn’t have an appetite. I would go two days without a bite of food, and you know how big of a deal food is for me.” She continued, “Most days were spent on the exact same spot on the couch and rarely would I muster up the energy to make it upstairs for bed. John would sleep on the couch with me, sometimes four nights in a row. I started keeping robes and comfy clothes in the pantry so I wouldn’t have to go upstairs when John went to work. There was a lot of spontaneous crying.” She credited John with being her rock, and said she opened up because she wants other moms to know they’re not alone. “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.”
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Kendall Jenner
“Anxiety was a huge hurdle for me to deal with this past year (and security concerns didn’t help),” the supermodel wrote on her app. “But I think I’m finally learning how to cope.” Jenner also went into detail describing a notable panic attack she experienced: “I once had a really bad attack on a plane and just had to ride it out,” she wrote. “I felt my heart beating a million miles an hour and I even went a little numb.”
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Ryan Phillippe
“I’m a lot more at peace than I was when I was younger,” he told PEOPLE. “I struggled much more with depression when I was in my 20s and 30s. I think the amount of reading that I’ve done, the work on myself and the ways that I’ve found to cope are healthier than when I was younger.” He continued: “There is a sensitivity that will never change and an empathy that will never change but how you deal with those feelings and where you let them take you, that’s an individualistic journey for anyone who struggles.”
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Emma Stone
“When I was about 7, I was convinced the house was burning down. I could sense it,” she told Rolling Stone, opening up about growing up as a child with anxiety. “Not a hallucination, just a tightening in my chest, feeling I couldn’t breathe, like the world was going to end. There were some flare-ups like that, but my anxiety was constant.” She added: “At a certain point, I couldn’t go to friends’ houses anymore – I could barely get out the door to school.” Along with the help from therapy, performing became a major way for Stone to overcome her anxiety. “I started acting at this youth theater, doing improv and sketch comedy,” she said. “You have to be present in improv, and that’s the antithesis of anxiety.”
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Colton Haynes
“Something’s been off lately,” Haynes wrote in a first-person piece dated Nov. 2, 2014, which the Teen Wolf actor shared in an issue of Paper. Haynes — who publicly came out as gay in early 2016 — opened up in the magazine about suffering from mental health issues. “I honestly wake up after five hours of sleep wide-awake. It’s probably from the bottle of wine I drank before I finally fell asleep/passed out or the amount of pills I’d had,” Haynes shared from the 2014 entry. “I read up on why I’m experiencing numbness and lack of circulation in my hands and feet and it’s due to the stimulants I’ve been taking for quite some time now.” The actor shared another first-person essay dated, Nov. 12, 2016, that demonstrates how far he’s come since. “I’m finally realizing is that I can’t and wouldn’t want to go back to that headspace ever again. So clouded and unsure about myself, my life, my privacy, my mental health. I’m finally in a position where I can say I’m the happiest I’ve ever been,” he wrote. “I’ve accomplished so much with so little and my smile is finally not forced. I’ve taken control of my own life for the first time … I’m finally free.”
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Naomi Judd
After years and years in the public eye, the country music star is finally opening up about her life-long struggle with mental health. “What I’ve been through is extreme. My final diagnosis was severe depression,” Judd told ABC’s Robin Roberts in an interview on Good Morning America. “Treatment resistant because they tried me on every single thing they had in their arsenal. It really felt like, if I live through this I want someone to be able to see that they can survive.” Judd wrote of her troubles in her new memoir River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope, in which she tells the story of how she reached “radical acceptance.”
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Lady Gaga
During an emotional visit with homeless LGBTQ teens in New York City, the pop star opened up about a struggle she’s kept secret her whole life. “I told the kids today, ‘I suffer from PTSD.’ I’ve never told anyone that before. So here we are,” Gaga told Today of the visit. “But the kindness that’s shown to me by doctors as well as my family, and my friends, it’s really saved my life.” She went on to explain how her own struggle allowed her to better understand the struggles facing teens who are pushed away from their families because of their sexuality. “These children are not just homeless or in need. Many of them are trauma survivors. They’ve been rejected in some type of way,” she said. “My own trauma in my life has helped me to understand the trauma of others.”
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Kim Kardashian
On an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kim Kardashian revealed that she was struggling with bouts of anxiety, soon after Kendall Jenner opened up about her own sleep paralysis. “I think we should find somebody for you two to talk to,” mom Kris Jenner told Kardashian. “So this doesn’t get bigger than it already is.” While talking to a therapist, Kardashian said that she just wanted to get past her anxiety and “take back her normal life.”
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Shannon Purser
The actress who played Barb in the Netflix hit Stranger Things revealed on Twitter that she used to struggle with self-harm. “*TRIGGER WARNING* I haven’t self-harmed in years, but I kept this around, ‘just in case.’ I forgot it was there & now it’s in the trash,” she wrote alongside a photo of a razor blade. She followed up with a second tweet that read, “Recovery is possible. Please don’t give up on yourself.”
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Miranda Kerr
In an interview for Elle Canada, the supermodel described herself as a “naturally positive person,” but that she had “never understood the depth of [depression] or the reality of that” before she split from her ex-husband, Orlando Bloom, in 2013. “My mom used to call me a ‘giggling Gert’ because I was always laughing, even in my sleep,” she said. “When Orlando and I separated, I actually fell into a really bad depression.” During that difficult time, Kerr learned that “every thought you have affects your reality and only you have control of your mind,” she told the magazine.
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Rachel Bloom
“When I’m about to engage in an anxiety spiral, it feels like I’m balancing at the edge of a pool, and if I dip my toe into the nonsense, I fall in. So I have to stay balanced. To help me do that, I’ve gotten into meditating. Yes, meditating,” the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend actress and co-creator tells Glamour of her struggle with depression and anxiety — and how she finally got a handle on both. “Meditating has helped me to focus on the present and to not see every great thing as my thing to f— up. I used to feel like, ‘Okay, this good thing is happening; it’s yours to lose.’ With this show, though, every day is so high stakes that I would crumble if I thought that way. So I try to say to myself, ‘Hey, you only live once. Go along for the ride. Do your best.’ “
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Amanda Seyfried
“I had pretty bad health anxiety that came from the OCD and thought I had a tumor in my brain,” Seyfried told Allure, opening up about living with obsessive-compulsive disorder since she was a teenager. “I had an MRI, and the neurologist referred me to a psychiatrist … As I get older, the compulsive thoughts and fears have diminished a lot. Knowing that a lot of my fears are not reality-based really helps.” As for mental illness itself, the actress also shared her viewpoint: “It should be taken as seriously as anything else. You don’t see the mental illness: It’s not a mass; it’s not a cyst. But it’s there.” She continued: “Why do you need to prove it? If you can treat it, you treat it.”
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Kid Cudi
The rapper discussed his ongoing experiences with anxiety and depression in a 2016 Facebook post, announcing that he had checked himself into treatment. “Its been difficult for me to find the words to what Im about to share with you because I feel ashamed. Ashamed to be a leader and hero to so many while admitting I’ve been living a lie,” he began. “Yesterday I checked myself into rehab for depression and suicidal urges…My anxiety and depression have ruled my life for as long as I can remember…I guess I give so much of myself to others I forgot that I need to show myself some love too. I think I never really knew how. Im scared, im sad, I feel like I let a lot of people down and again, Im sorry. Its time I fix me. Im nervous but ima get through this.”
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Demi Lovato
“I’m living well with my mental illness – I am actually functioning like a very happy person would,” Lovato told PEOPLE in May 2015, offering hope to sufferers of bipolar disorder who might fear they’ll never live comfortably with their illnesses. “I have a brand-new puppy and I’m able to not only take care of myself but take care of him as well. I’m living my dream.” The pop star is adamant about fighting the stigma that surrounds mood disorders, too. “I just think mental illness is something people need to learn more about and the stigma needs to be taken away from.”
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Jon Hamm
For some sufferers of depression, deciding to take medication can feel shameful, which is why Hamm’s words about his battle with the disease – and seeking medicated treatment – are so impactful. Talking about his father’s death and his struggle to cope, Hamm opened up to The Observer about turning to therapy and antidepressants. “It gives you another perspective when you are so lost in your own spiral,” he said. “It helps.”
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Pete Wentz
The Fall Out Boy bassist, who has struggled with bipolar disorder for years, wants to make sure people know there isn’t a single treatment for such a complex condition. “I don’t take any medication,” Wentz told HuffPost Live in January 2020. “I went to therapy … but I think the idea that there’s a one-size-fits-all [solution] is one of those myths. Everybody figures themselves out in different ways.”
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Lena Dunham
“To those struggling with anxiety, OCD, depression: I know it’s mad annoying when people tell you to exercise, and it took me about 16 medicated years to listen,” said the Girls star, who spoke (and wrote) openly about her mental health struggles in an April 2020 Instagram post. “I’m glad I did. It ain’t about the ass, it’s about the brain.”
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Catherine Zeta-Jones
When Zeta-Jones received a diagnosis of bipolar II disorder – a disease that affects millions – she knew she had to come forward if it could help people. “This is a disorder that affects millions of people and I am one of them,” she told PEOPLE in 2011. “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.”
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J.K. Rowling
She may be the most famous living writer in the world, but the Harry Potter author has felt so powerless and dark that she considered suicide. Yet Rowling refuses to feel shame for her struggles. “What’s to be ashamed of? I went through a really rough time, and I am quite proud that I got out of that,” she told the Sunday Times of London in 2008. The author has also been refreshingly open about her battle with obsessive compulsive disorder, as well – her experiences with the disease informed a character in her book, The Casual Vacancy.
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Brook Shields
“I finally had a healthy beautiful baby girl and I couldn’t look at her,” Shields recalled at the 2009 Hope for Depression Research Foundation awards of the tortuous months following daughter Rowan’s birth in 2003. “I couldn’t hold her and I couldn’t sing to her and I couldn’t smile at her … all I wanted to do was disappear and die.” Shields went on to stress that she wasn’t wrong, or broken, or an awful mother. “I learned that I wasn’t doing anything wrong to feel that way. That it was actually out of my control.”
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Wayne Brady
Pointing to a culture that discourages men from speaking out about their feelings, Brady confessed that he hid his depression for years. Now, he’s finally fighting back against the stigma. “It’s difficult for men in general, I think, because of the way that we’re raised,” he said in a 2015 interview with PEOPLE. “We feel any of the negative emotions or that dark cloud settle on you, and you feel like you need to cry or speak to someone about it, and, ‘Nope, I’m not gonna do that, because I’m a man.'”
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