Famous Depressed People

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In early October every year is World Mental Health Day. There is still a lot of stigma surrounding mental health so the organisations of the world dedicated to helping sufferers have come together to raise awareness and attempt to dispel the myths surrounding those who suffer depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other mental health issues. To help this, examples from the world of celebrity willingly speak out about their health. Here is a list of ten of the most famous mental health sufferers.

1. Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry

The TV presenter, actor and well-known intellectual has been outspoken in recent years about his life-long mental health battle against bipolar disorder. Speaking candidly in 2013, he discussed his own suicide attempts (most recently in 2012) in an attempt to encourage others to be more open about their own mental health problems. During one particular bout he went missing for many days but later surfaced in Belgium. He has recently become President for ‘Mind’, the UK’s largest mental health charity.

2. Carrie Fisher

Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher

The Star Wars star later regretted taking the role as she hadn’t realised or expected how big the franchise would become. A recluse by nature, Fisher would have rather stayed out of the limelight in her acting career. She has battled bipolar disorder all her life and has fought addiction to cocaine and prescription medication ‘ her cocaine habit afflicted her while filming The Empire Strikes Back. She later recanted her regret about appearing in Star Wars and it 2013 agreed to be interviewed for a documentary for Stephen Fry.

3. Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh

The most famous depressive the world has ever known is the celebrated impressionist painter from Holland. He perhaps typifies the correlation between creativity and mental health being such a celebrated painter. He suffered lifelong depression, alcoholism, insomnia, hallucinations and various other symptoms associated with mental health. During one seizure and bout of hallucination, he cut off his right ear. He died in 1890 and was believed to have committed suicide. His insomnia and poor digestion could also have been the result of persistent anxiety attacks.

4. Linda Hamilton

Linda Hamilton
Linda Hamilton

Another actress, Hamilton made her name as Sarah Connor in the Terminator films, mother of the saviour of humanity ‘ John Connor. Hamilton is a life-long manic depressive who came to terms with a condition that was not diagnosed for many years. Struggling with image issues took its toll on Hamilton who went through a rebellious phase which eventually led to addiction. Her first marriage broke down when her then husband could no longer take her unpredictable behaviour and ‘bullying behaviour’. She would eventually get a call to appear in Terminator 2 by which time she was off the drugs but had become addicted to exercise.

5. Justin Fashanu

Justin Fashanu
Justin Fashanu

England’s first million-pound footballer fought a lot of prejudice in his life. Being black at a time when fans were still struggling to accept players of his colour, though he was not the first black player to pull on an England shirt, he later went on to suffer for another reason: he was openly gay. Though this was known around his team-mates, it did not become public knowledge until 1990 when he spoke openly to the press. The same crowd that had finally accepted him for being black turned on him once more. Facing allegations of sexual assault in the USA, Fashanu returned to England and committed suicide in 1998.

6. Catherine Zeta-Jones

Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta-Jones

If any mental health issue came as a surprise for any public figure, it was this icon of the big and small screen. The wife of Michael Douglas moved to the USA some years ago to pursue her Hollywood career aware from her Wales home land. In the early 2010s, she openly spoke about her lifelong battle with Bipolar II Disorder ‘ a condition characterised by bouts of major depression and hypomania (persistent high levels of euphoria). Bipolar II means that the sufferer has never had a manic episode

7. Spike Milligan

Spike Milligan
Spike Milligan

Another famous depressive is this much-celebrated British comedian. He suffered severe bipolar disorder and had at least ten diagnosed breakdowns during the course of his life ‘ some of which lasted over a year. He went into hospital on several occasions for deep narcosis because he couldn’t bear to be awake but had terrible difficulty sleeping. Milligan died in 2002 at the age of 83, the church where he was buried refused his requested epitaph ‘I told you I was ill!’

8. Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath

The famous American writer was another creative type who suffered life-long depression. She married British poet Ted Hughes and the two lived together first in the USA before moving to London. Her depression took a turn for the worse after the birth of the couple’s two children. She took her own life in 1963, several days after being prescribed antidepressants by her Doctor who had tried to encourage her to go into hospital for treatment. It had not been her first attempt at suicide.

9. Frank Bruno

Frank Bruno
Frank Bruno

The much-loved British boxer who finally became world champion in 1995 lost his title within a matter of months to Mike Tyson three months later and retired due to an eye injury. Thus began the descent of Bruno whose life seemed to fall apart. He divorced from his wife in 2001 amid allegations of domestic violence and nights spent sleeping in his personal boxing ring. In 2003, he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and The Sun newspaper mocked his illness ‘ something that backfired on the newspaper. Bruno now speaks openly about his mental health problems.

10. Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf

If there was ever a creative type around whom the concept of the ‘neurotic genius’ centred, then this feminist writer was the one. Suffering depression because of sexual abuse she suffered as a child, Woolf went through life suffering bouts of manic depression following publication of several pieces of her work. In retrospect, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder ‘ something today that still often goes unrecognised.

Conclusion

By pointing to examples such as those above, we can combat the stigma surrounding mental health. Fame and fortune is no barrier against depression, despair and bipolar disorder. Only by speaking candidly and supporting Mental Health charities can we begin to break down the barriers surrounding these stigmatised conditions.

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