Why Celebrities Talking About Their Mental Health is Changing Societal Standards

  As we have entered a new decade, celebrities and influencers have found ways to bring light to their mental health stories.

  For the first time in society, we allow more open space to what happens internally for a large percentage of the human population. The National Alliance of Mental Health explains how every year 1 in 5 people experience mental illness, and 1 in 20 people experience a high level of mental illness.

  Our brains are receiving more information than ever, at such a fast pace, that it has grown immensely easier to live inside a false reality perfectly made for your interest, rather than where your feet are. We are coming across hundreds of pictures and videos a day of people looking perfect through filters, and perfectly orchestrating a life you dream of in a 10-second video, as you sit scrolling through social media during your lunch break, dreaming of a life that someone else designed for views.

  For centuries mental health has been seen as something to hide or pretend is not happening. We have seen this through different authors trying to explain what is going on in their minds throughout the centuries, while they wonder if this is how everyone lives. We see through the early 20th century when people would begin to show signs of anxiety and depression, they would be sent immediately to institutions and never talked about again, as if they had gone mad. There has been this fear that umbrellas over mental illness for so long because it was never something we tried to understand. The peculiar and different have always been seen, through societal standards, as wrong. We have continuously pushed people to just avoid talking about their feelings and hide thoughts in their minds because how society views you are a lot more important than finding peace with yourself.

  However, as times have increasingly changed throughout the years, and the devastation of COVID flooded our world, we have finally begun to give a voice to mental illness, find solutions, and figure out why the brain chemistry changes as we grow and the world changes. Not only have countless studies been done and medicine been made to help mental illness, but since COVID, therapy has risen in demand, with people finally learning how to talk about the things going on in their head; and normalize them.

  We grow up in this world where we idolize the people around us, and as we get older, we begin to realize they are just like you and me. They are fighting battles in their head, trying to figure out their life, and helping us to realize no one is as perfect as they design themselves to be on social media. We see this, especially with celebrities and influencers.

  Over the past few years, a handful of celebrities have made documentaries and have come out about the mental illnesses that they face in day-to-day life. We have seen Selena Gomez talk bravely about her Bipolar Disorder, Prince Harry dealing with anxiety and depression, Shawn Mendes cancelling his tour for mental health reasons and needing a reset, and recently Lewis Capaldi doing the same while talking about the long fight he has been battling with his mental illness.

   Having these celebrities, although only a few were named, brings to light what so many of us deal with every-single-day, and helps the people who look up to them, see them as human and more like them. Realizing we are all people trying to learn how to deal with the chemistry of our mind and how to be the best versions of ourselves we possibly can be.

  Lady Gaga recently at the Oscars performed her song “Hold My Hand” while explaining how we all need someone we can lean on in this world. People get us through the hard times that we all encounter at some point. She did this performance in jeans and a t-shirt, with no makeup on, to show that there is so much more to music, art, and society than looking how we have been told we need to be seen by the world.

  At the end of the day, it is so important to realize none of us are ever truly alone. Mental illness is something so many people around you are going through, and there are finally ways to learn more about it. As you go about your day, living your life and going to work or the store, you can look around you, and realize there is so much more to the people we come across and see than what meets the eye. We are all humans trying to make sense of our minds and the world while learning how to grow and understand that what matters most is how we see and love the person staring back at us in the mirror.

Edited: Youssef Eljarray 

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