De’Vante Martin is a freshman mass communication major from Saint Joseph, LA.
I believe the mental health issues of celebrities are a huge problem in America today. Of course, mental health problems can strike at any time, and do not discriminate with regards to the situation or status.
Famous celebrities seem to have it made, but they have problems just like the rest of us. With them being in the public eye, it can be difficult to keep those problems out of the spotlight. Luckily, in recent years, we’ve seen a shift in the way people view and talk about mental health. Conversations about depression, anxiety, addiction, and more have moved from private to public.
Some stars including Big Sean, Taraji P. Henson, & Lizzo, have opted to not hide their issues. Taraji Henson, the Empire star, talked about her problems with depression in a 2019 interview with Variety. She stated, “I suffer from depression…. My anxiety is kicking up even more every day, and I’ve never really dealt with anxiety like that. It’s something new.” Lizzo also expressed her issues with depression last year on social media. She made a video on Instagram and she got plenty of support from fans. She posted another video the next day saying, “I learned in the last 24 hours that being emotionally honest can save your life.” Big Sean, a popular American rapper and songwriter, stepped away from songwriting and started getting therapy.
2019 seemed to start a trend that would help famous celebrities open and find comfort with their situations. 2020 hasn’t gotten out to the best start, with stars such as Antonio Brown and Aaron Hernandez stories being told. Neither of these NFL stars necessarily ever came out and said they’ve had mental issues, but their actions assume they were dealing with something.
Antonio Brown, a 5x All-Pro, has went through many rash actions. Many analysts have brought up the possibility of Brown suffering from CTE. CTE is caused by repetitive brain trauma and includes concussions. A couple of effects of CTE are impaired judgement and impulse control problems. Brown famously suffered a concussion from a violent hit by Vontaze Burfict. After that concussion, he’s had incident after incident where he has let aggression and emotions get the best of him. From the outside looking in, it seems that he is dealing with mental issues, even though he hasn’t admitted to it.
Recently, Netflix has released a new limited series featuring the late Aaron Hernandez. In the episode it included a lot of his life troubles. The episode concluded with a few people speaking on whether some of his actions were justified because it was revealed he had a severe case of CTE.
Most thought that still didn’t justified his actions though. Mostly it was the thought that he had mental issues, however they came, he had them. This goes back to celebrities being in the spotlight. Maybe these two famous athletes didn’t want their problems in the spotlight.
It’s a problem that can’t be ignored. These past couple years have shown us that it is a real discussion that needs to be talked about. Maybe there can be a club or an association that can bring this further out into the light, because celebrities are regular human beings, too.