17 Celebs Who've Spoken Out About Their Depression
17 Celebs Who've Spoken Out About Their Depression
Having depression can be isolating. Those suffering can feel as though they’re the only person in the universe who's struggling. But they’re not—and a number of celebs have spoken out about their own battle in hopes of making others feel better understood.
The 17 famous women featured here have all opened up about their struggles with depression, and the things they’ve shared are the real deal. In fact, others battling depression will likely be able to relate to the celebs' experiences—and maybe even feel a bit more understood.
"I felt worthless, like I had nothing to offer."
"For me, depression is not sadness. It’s not having a bad day and needing a hug. It gave me a complete and utter sense of isolation and loneliness," Kristen Bell wrote in Time in May 2016, when she decided to help others by opening up about her battle with depression.
"Its debilitation was all-consuming, and it shut down my mental circuit board. I felt worthless, like I had nothing to offer, like I was a failure. Now, after seeking help, I can see that those thoughts, of course, couldn’t have been more wrong."
"Depression eats away at your confidence"
"Depression eats away at your confidence, and you get lost in that, and forget that you're enough just as you are," Ellen DeGeneres told USA Today in December 2018 of coming out as a lesbian in the 90s and experiencing media backlash.
"There's something dark within me I cannot shake.”
Cara Delevingne told The Guardian in September 2017 that becoming a famous model hasn’t magically made her depression disappear. "So many of my friends would say, 'How can you feel like that?' and, 'But you’re so lucky,' and I’d be like, I know, trust me, I know. I know I’m the luckiest girl in the world, I understand all of these things, and I wish I could appreciate it. There is just something dark within me I cannot seem to shake."
"I disliked myself so intensely."
"I disliked myself so intensely. It was just a mindset. I didn’t know how to love myself. I didn’t know how to love anybody," Anne Hathaway told ABC News in April 2017 about the depression she felt as a teen.
"It felt like a chemical change."
"The depression I experienced [felt] like a chemical change," Sarah Silverman said of her teenage years in an October 2015 interview with NPR about what depression felt like to her as a teenager. "It was like my perspective of the world changed about three degrees, and everything I saw was different."
"I didn’t know where to put myself."
"I was raised in a place where if you have fame and money and you’re decent-looking and have the ability to work in this industry, you have everything in the world," Angelina Jolie explained to the Wall Street Journal in November 2015 about the depression she felt when she was younger. "Then you attain those things and realize you still couldn’t be more empty. I didn’t know where to put myself."
"I was on autopilot."
"Depression was my life for five years straight. I think before I turned 26, there was like this weird time in my life [where] I think I was kind of on autopilot for about five years. Kinda just going through the motions and figuring out who I am and just doing the best I could and then slowly but surely doing that," The Fix reported on Selena Gomez’s series of October 2018 Instagram posts where she talked about her mental health and taking a hiatus from social media.
"I had to go through several therapists."
"I talk to someone regularly. It has to be regularly, and that’s what I learned. It gets frustrating because you’re waiting for them to fix you, but it’s not that easy," Taraji P. Henson said of how she manages her depression in an April 2019 interview with Variety.
"I had to go through several therapists that I felt comfortable talking to, or that I felt was moving me forward and that I was making some progress with, and that takes time. I remember the first time I went, I was angry, because I was like, 'She didn’t tell me nothing! She didn’t tell me anything!' You’re not going to figure it all out in one sitting."
"I didn't eat. I stayed in my room."
"I didn't eat. I stayed in my room. I was in a really bad place in life, going through that lonely period: 'Who am I? Who are my friends?' My life changed," said Beyonce to CBS News in December 2006 of the depression she went through after Destiny’s Child broke up.
"Sometimes I feel like it’s a lifelong struggle."
"Sometimes I feel like it’s a lifelong struggle…I try to not isolate myself as much. It is really hard. People that are sensitive, you just feel too porous sometimes. There’s this inertia that sets in, and it’s hard to get out of bed," Carrie Brownstein said in an October 2015 with Pitchfork about her memoir, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl.
“I self-love so hard because everything feels like rejection.”
Lizzo empowers her fans with uplifting and confident lyrics, but in June 2019, she opened up about her depression in a candid video on her Instagram. Text over the video said, “I’m depressed and there’s no one I can talk to because there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Life hurts.”
She continued in her caption, “I self-love so hard because everything feels like rejection… it feels like the whole world be ghostin me sometimes. Sad af today. But this too shall pass. S/O all the messages of love. Thank you.”
“Seeing that someone else feels just as horrible as you do is a comfort.”
“Kids use my songs as a hug,” Billie Eilish told Rolling Stone in February 2019, on writing music that people who are struggling can resonate with. “Songs about being depressed or suicidal or completely just against-yourself—some adults think that’s bad, but I feel that seeing that someone else feels just as horrible as you do is a comfort. It’s a good feeling. It’s someone to scream with.”
“I had no motivation to do anything or go out.”
Sophie Turner has dealt with depression for “five or six years,” and in the early seasons of 'Game of Thrones,' nasty comments on social media took a toll on her mental health. “I had no motivation to do anything or go out,” she told Dr. Phil on his podcast Phil in the Blanks in April 2019.
“I would cry and cry and cry. Just have to change and put on clothes, I said, ‘I can’t do this. I can’t go outside. I have nothing that I want to do.’”
“I can slip in and out of it quite easily.”
When asked by Vanity Fair in December 2016 why she refers to her songs as “miserable,” Adele said, “The music I’ve always been drawn to is sad. I’ve always been pretty melancholy...I’m very available to depression. I can slip in and out of it quite easily.”
“I just accepted depression as something that’s part of my anatomy.”
Actress Gabourey Sidibe spoke to People in May 2017 about her new memoir when she told the magazine, “I just accepted depression as something that’s part of my anatomy; it’s part of my chemistry, it’s part of my biology.” She continued: “When it’s too big for me to just turn around on my own, I see a therapist...We should all see a therapist.”
“I just want these kids to know that the depth that they feel as human beings is normal.”
Lady Gaga opened up to Billboard in October 2015 about creating her foundation, Born This Way, which focuses on supporting young people by creating a kinder world. “Ive suffered through depression and anxiety my entire life, and I still suffer with it every single day,” she said. “I just want these kids to know that the depth that they feel as human beings is normal. We were born that way.”
“People don’t know how to talk about being depressed.”
In April 2014, Miley Cyrus told Elle that she’d struggled with depression. “I went through a time where I was really depressed,” she said. “Like, I locked myself in my room and my dad had to break my door down.”
When the magazine mentioned it hadn’t known that Cyrus dealt with depression, she said, “It’s more of an issue than people really want to talk about. Because people don’t know how to talk about being depressed—that it’s totally okay to feel sad.”
"I was on autopilot for about five years."