Celebrities on their mental health struggles: from Prince Harry to Ellie Goulding

Mental health problems including depression and anxiety affect one in four people in the UK each year, with many people keeping quiet about the challenges they are facing. However, a number of celebrities have opened up about the mental health challenges they have faced in order to lose the stigma surrounding these conditions. Here, in the aftermath of Caroline Flack's untimely death, we take a look at some of the famous faces who have spoken out about their mental health struggles, including Ellie Goulding, Chrissy Teigen and Prince Harry.

Demi Lovato

Demi Lovato has talked candidly about her eating disorder and self-harming, previously saying it was a way of "expressing my own shame, of myself, on my own body". She once said: "There were some times where my emotions were just so built up, I didn't know what to do. The only way that I could get instant gratification was through an immediate release on myself."

In a 2019 interview, the singer reflected on how she speaks to herself. "Now when I look in the mirror and I start to have a negative thought, I don't stop and say, 'No, you're beautiful, you're gorgeous, I love you, you're perfect the way you are.' Because I don't believe that,” she said, instead turning to an affirmation her therapist gave her: "You're healthy and I accept you."

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Kirsten Bell

Frozen 2 actress Kristen Bell has opened up about her anxiety and depression, saying she hopes to break the 'shame' associated with the conditions. "Everyone thinks there's some shame in it,' the 39-year-old star explained on Sunday TODAY. "[People think] I'm like "bubbles, glitter!" No, it's not always that way. 'I am someone who takes a medication for her anxiety and depression."

She continued: "I am someone who has to check myself and sometimes - if I'm feeling really low - I make a checklist of good and bad things in my life to see if it's my mental state or if we really have a problem." Kristen credits her husband, Dax Shepard, with encouraging her to speak about her own mental health battle. 

Ellen Degeneres 

After she went public with her sexuality in 1997, Ellen Degeneres said she struggled with the public reaction. "People were making fun of me. I was really depressed. And because of that and because the show was cancelled, I was looked at as a failure in this business. No one would touch me. I had no agent, I had no possibility of a job, I had nothing."

She has since become one of America's most popular TV hosts, and she reflected on that time in her life on The Ellen Degeneres Show, stating: "It was the hardest thing that I ever had to do in my life. And I would not change one moment of it because it led me to be exactly where I am today, standing in front of all of you."

Prince Harry

Prince Harry opened up about his own mental health issues, and revealed that he suffered from panic attacks in the aftermath of his mother Princess Diana's death. "In my case, suit and tie, every time I was in any room with loads of people, which is quite often, I was just pouring with sweat, like heart beating – boom, boom, boom, boom – and literally like a washing machine," the Prince told Forces TV. "I was like, 'Oh my God, get me out of here now.' Oh hang on, I can't get out of here, I have got to just hide it."

Dwayne Johnson

Dwayne revealed he suffered from depression after he was cut from his football team, the Calgary Stampeders, after just two months. However, he explained in a YouTube video that it ultimately prompted him to begin his wrestling career. "I found that, with depression, one of the most important things you could realize is that you're not alone. You're not the first to go through it; you're not going to be the last to go through it," he said. "Have faith that on the other side of your pain is something good."

Ellie Goulding

Fitness has become a big part of Ellie Goulding's life for more reasons than one. The singer says that exercise has helped to ease the anxiety and panic attacks she suffered after becoming famous in 2010. "I think part of what sparked my panic attacks was not feeling confident enough to believe in myself—I was scared I wasn’t as good of a singer as everyone thought I was. And as the stakes grew, I was afraid of letting everyone, including myself, down," Ellie wrote in an open letter.

Chrissy Teigen

Chrissy Teigen wrote an essay for US Glamour magazine explaining how she had struggled following the birth of her daughter Luna. "What basically everyone around me - but me - knew up until December was this: I have postpartum depression," she wrote.

During a visit to the Today show, Chrissy said: "Since it happened with Luna, it happened with my first one, I just didn't know that there was any other way to feel. I thought it was very natural to be in this low, low point and I just assumed that was motherhood and there was no other way around it."

She continued: "I had really changed. It wasn't just being tired, it was being really, really sad and hard on yourself and really down on yourself."

Harry Judd

McFly drummer Harry Judd credits exercise with helping him to deal with anxiety, panic attacks and OCD, and spoke out about his experiences during an appearance on BBC Breakfast.

"Talking and sharing is SO important to destroying the stigma of mental health so that people feel empowered to seek out help and find their own way of dealing with their challenges," he wrote on Instagram.

"For me, exercise is the key to keeping myself feeling balanced, in control and happy, which is why I called my book #GetFitGetHappy."

READ: Find out more about the #HelloToKindness campagin

Cara Delevingne

Cara Delevingne confessed to feeling suicidal as a teenager and became depressed after putting too much pressure on herself. "I think I pushed myself so far, I got to the point where I had a bit of a mental breakdown," Cara said in 2015. "I have very bad learning disabilities so I got to the point where I went a bit mad. I was completely suicidal, didn't want to live any more, I thought that I was completely alone."

Lady Gaga

In December 2016, Lady Gaga revealed she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after suffering from sexual abuse when she was a teenager. "I suffer from PTSD," the singer admitted on the Today Show. "I've never told anyone that before, so here we are. But the kindness that's shown to me by doctors as well as my family, and my friends, it's really saved my life."

At an awards show years later, she told the audience: "I began to notice that I would stare off into space and blackout for seconds or minutes. I would see flashes of things I was tormented by, experiences that were filed away in my brain with 'I’ll deal with you later' for many years because my brain was protecting me, as science teaches us. These were also symptoms of disassociation and PTSD and I did not have a team that included mental health support."

She explained that her struggles "later morphed into physical chronic pain, fibromyalgia, panic attacks, acute trauma responses, and debilitating mental spirals that have included suicidal ideation and masochistic behaviour."

Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez took some time out of the spotlight to focus on her anxiety issues, which she said were a side-effect of her struggle with Lupus. "Around a year ago I revealed that I have Lupus, an illness that can affect people in different ways," she said at the time. "I've discovered that anxiety, panic attacks and depression can be side effects of Lupus, which can present their own challenges."

Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Reynolds credited his wife Blake Lively for helping to "keep me sane" when he suffered from intense anxiety while filming Deadpool. "I never ever slept. Or I was sleeping at a perfect right angle – just sitting straight, constantly working at the same time. By the time we were in post [production], we'd been to Comic-Con, and people went crazy for it. The expectations were eating me alive."

He added: "Blake helped me through that. I'm lucky to have her around just to keep me sane."

Frankie Bridge

Frankie Bridge has become one of mental health charity Mind's celebrity ambassadors after opening up about her experiences of depression. The mum-of-two said she spent years feeling "worthless" and "isolated" despite her success, and was admitted to a rehabilitation clinic in 2011. "I felt anxious all the time and I was having panic attacks; I knew there was something wrong," Frankie said in an interview in 2014.

Hayden Panettiere

Actress Hayden Panettiere has twice entered a treatment facility in order to address the postpartum depression she has suffered with since the birth of her daughter Kaya in December 2014. Confirming her decision to seek treatment in May 2016, Hayden said in a statement: "The postpartum depression I have been experiencing has impacted every aspect of my life. Rather than stay stuck due to unhealthy coping mechanisms I have chosen to take time to reflect holistically on my health and life. Wish me luck!"

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