Lady Gaga. Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson. Jon Hamm. JK Rowling. They’re among the most famous and talented artists today. So are Owen Wilson, Wayne Brady, Sarah Silverman and Sheryl Crow. And they all have one thing in common: depression.
They also have something in common with every unknown, non-famous person on the planet: They are human, and thus at risk for mental illness. Depression can strike anyone — rich or poor, man or woman, celebrity or commoner. Lady Gaga has said she has suffered through depression and anxiety her entire life. Sheryl Crow admits to a six-month period “when I couldn’t dress, days I couldn’t leave the house.” Rowling said she used her experiences with depression when writing the Dementors, her dark, shrouded characters who “glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them. … Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you.”
Rowling and other celebrities are no different than the rest of us. “We are all people, and all equally vulnerable to depression,” says Dr. Philip R. Muskin, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University in New York. But there may be special risks, and rewards, for those in the public eye.
[See: Am I Just Sad — or Actually Depressed?]
Many Similarities
Celebrities face the same risks as everyone else. “People who suffer adversity as children may be more vulnerable to depression, and I don’t know that celebrities are any more or less likely to suffer that,” Muskin says. Actor Jon Hamm, for example, reportedly fell into depression after his mother died of stomach cancer when he was just 10 and his father died when he was 20.
Stress is another risk factor, and though there’s a common belief that celebrities want to be in the public eye, that’s not true for many. “Many people assume actors want to be famous public figures, but my experience with actors and singers I treat is that it is not necessarily so,” says Alison Ross, a psychologist and adjunct associate professor of psychology at City College of New York. “They may love performing, but the idea of becoming a public figure who will be scrutinized, who will become public property, is very stressful to them. It is not why they became performers.”
There’s also constant pressure to look good in public. “I have treated strikingly beautiful women who still say ‘I look awful,'” Ross says. “They are insecure like any other human being. They worry about weight gain; ‘this body part is not perfect, I’m not smart or funny enough’ — the same insecurities as anyone else.”
Some Differences
Celebrities do experience certain stressors that other “mortals” may not. Constant travel can sound glamorous, but is in fact often a lonely way to live. “They feel like they don’t have a home, and that is destabilizing, particularly if they are trying to have relationship,” Ross says. “If one of them is at a shoot for two months in Michigan and the other is in New York, that puts wear and tear on relationships.”
Wealth can compound the issue. “They also have a lot more money than rest of us, and that is not a good thing,” Miskin says. “They are able to access the world in ways most of us are not, and can get away with behaving badly in ways that most of us can’t.”
That often involves substance abuse. “If I try to get propofol [the drug that killed Michael Jackson], I will get a call from the pharmacist asking why,” he says. “But celebrities, because of their wealth and fame, have access to things that aren’t good for them and can be quite dangerous.”
[See: Coping With Depression at Work.]
Special Treatment
If celebrities have one other thing in common, it’s their ability to get special treatment. “Celebrities are always going into ‘rehab’ — never going to see a psychiatrist or psychologist,” Miskin says. “It is an accepted euphemism. You rarely hear of a celebrity going into a psychiatric hospital.”
Many do need special accommodations, like greater privacy, he says. “They may be more demanding sometimes, because they are used to being treated a special way by the world,” he says. He’ll separate appointments to give his famous patients time to come and go without being noticed. “They don’t want the world to know, and that is a courtesy I give them.” But otherwise, he says, treatments are generally the same as for anyone else.
“Special treatment is OK sometimes, but you do not want to indulge their bad behavior or excuse them because they are talented,” he says. “Some of them say, ‘I am not like other people, I am better,’ but I try to help them see they have the same rules that apply to us all. You can’t drink a bottle of vodka a day even if you are famous.”
Celebrities do have one more thing in common: the ability to talk about depression publicly. “When recognized people speak out about stigmatized issues, the stigma decreases,” says Dr. Steven C. Schlozman, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “To the extent we can get these people speaking about depression, that is a great service to us as a culture.”
[See: 7 Health Risks of Binge Drinking You Can’t Ignore.]
And many bold-face names have done just that. “With depression, one of the most important things you could realize is that you’re not alone,” Johnson said on an episode of “Oprah’s Master Class.” “You’re not the first to go through it; you’re not going to be the last to go through it. I wish I had someone at that time who could just pull me aside and [say], ‘Hey, it’s gonna be OK. It’ll be OK.'”
“I wouldn’t wish depression on anyone,” comedian Sarah Silverman has said. “But if you ever experience it, or are experiencing it right now, just know that on the other side, the little joys in life will be that much sweeter. The tough times, the days when you’re just a ball on the floor — they’ll pass. You’re playing the long game, and life is totally worth it.”
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Celebrities With Depression: What Do They Have in Common? originally appeared on usnews.com
