Celebrities rarely talk about mental illness.
It’s no secret that ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’ are hardly sexy topics of conversation, and when you’re promoting a new movie/your latest memoir/a line of perfume for tiny kittens, it’s not really the message you want to send to your potential customers.
But sometimes, our favourite Hollywood stars get very, very candid and when they do, it makes me really happy.
Of course, I’m not delighting in the fact that other people are suffering.
In a perfect world, no-one would struggle with crippling social anxiety. Or depression so deep it makes them never want to leave their bed.
But there is something to be said when our news feeds are flooded with stories about famous faces struggling just like us.
Sometimes, it's comforting to know that fame doesn't put people in a protective bubble where they go untouched by the issues that affect us 'average Janes'.
It's confirmation that if you're struggling with your mental health you are not alone, and that many, many people - Oscar winners and supermodels included - know exactly how you feel.
This week, I woke up to headlines that said Miranda Kerr had opened up about falling into a "deep depression" after her split from actor husband Orlando Bloom.
"I never understood the depth of that feeling or the reality of that because I was naturally a very happy person," the Australian supermodel told Elle Canada.
Also this week, Ellen DeGeneres admitted she hit "rock bottom" after she came out as gay on the cover of Time magazine in 1997.
"I was the punch line of lots of jokes. I laughed at some, but I realised there’s somebody on the other side of them. It’s cruel," the talk show host told Out, appearing on the cover after being crowned their ‘Entertainer of the Year’.
Mia Freedman talks anxiety on Just Between Us:
Top Comments
Please let's not normalise the side-vag...that's enough to make any normal person depressed and anxious