Even if you don’t let it slow you down, your mental state can still affect your health and wellbeing. Everyone suffers from stress and anxiety, even celebrities, so it is heartening to see famous faces open up about how their state of mind can affect their everyday lives.
WATCH THIS VIDEO TOO:
5 Simple Ways To Sneak In Some Exercise At The Office
To mark World Mental Health Day on October 10, we look at some famous faces who have come clean about their struggles with mental health and are breaking down the stigma associated with it:
READ MORE:
Subtle Signs Of Depression That Everyone Needs To Know About
It’s Official! Instagram Is In Fact Bad For Your Mental Health
Jeon Mi-seon, Jonghyun & Other Korean Celebrities Who We Tragically Lost To Depression
Text: Letty Seah, HerWorld / Additional Reporting: Natalya Molok
The sixth in line to the British throne, Prince Harry has been open about mental health issues since his beloved mother passed away in 1997.
“I can safely say that losing my mum at the age of 12 and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but also my work as well…I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions,” says the royal.
“It is okay to have depression, it is okay to have anxiety and it is okay to have an adjustment disorder. We need to improve the conversation. We all have mental health in the same way we all have physical health.”
The face of Laneige says stress takes a toll on her mental health makes her extremely tired and lethargic. It even affected her ability to continue acting. In February, she suspended all of her activities due to health reasons.
But the star now has her own special way of dealing with stress. “If I see the inevitable stress that I get in life as a big wave every time, it will swallow me up like a tsunami. If I see it as gentle waves that come and go, it’s easier to forget about them,” says Yoo Jung. She added that stated that her goal of 2018 is taking care of herself more and spending more time with her fans.
Behind her chirpy and happy-go-lucky demeanour we are used to seeing on screen lies a long battle with depression, which is exacerbated by periods of stress.
Luckily, things did get better for Michelle, both professionally and in terms of mental health. She filled the void she felt by and stopped herself from going into that downwards spiral by going behind the camera to get that creative outlet she desired.
Jeanette’s portrayal of an actress who falls into depression after a series of setbacks and mishaps in the 2015 drama series, “The Dream Makers II,” cuts so deep to the core of human emotion that it is kind of unsurprising that she’s had her fair share of mental turmoil to get into character.
In an Instagram post that same year, the actress stressed the importance of being supportive of those who might be going through a tough time.
View this post on InstagramBe you. The World will adjust. . #JeanetteAw
A post shared by Jeanette Aw 欧萱 (@jeanetteaw) on
At her lowest ebb, Eelyn was so down with stress and depression, she locked herself in her room for six whole months. Fortunately, she managed to get herself out of that dark place. She found strength through religion, regular exercise, reading inspirational books and listening to “Survivor”, a song by Destiny’s Child.
According to figures from Singhealth, about 10 to 15 per cent of women who give birth develop post-partum depression, a serious, long-lasting condition that’s more than just baby blues. It can happen to anyone. Exhaustion, sleep deprivation and other stressors take a toll on many women.
Yi Fong suffered from post-natal depression after the birth of her daughter, Eleanor, in 1999 and has received treatment for clinical depression , sleep problems and anxiety since 2007.
Funny gal, Chrissy Teigen, suffered from post-partum depression too after the birth of her first child. She was reluctant to talk about her condition especially because she has a relatively privileged life.
“I just didn’t think it could happen to me. I have a great life. I have all the help I could need: John, my mother (who lives with us), a nanny. But postpartum does not discriminate,” she wrote on Instagram. “I couldn’t control it. And that’s part of the reason it took me so long to speak up: I felt selfish, icky, and weird saying aloud that I’m struggling. Sometimes I still do.”
Life hasn’t always been a bed of roses for the athleisure guru and local actress, At one point,she even starved herself for two weeks because she felt insecure about her looks and her weight dropped by 4 kg.
She eventually gave up on the idea because it cause her too much stress, which eventually lead to depression. But today, she says she has a healthier attitude.
Working hard for a dream can be utterly exhausting, especially when you are in the public eye, and perhaps no one knows that better than Julie Tan.
She was body-shamed online so badly while trying to break into the industry that she even contemplated going under the knife. Julie also revealed that she “had very bad anxiety attacks and during that period of time, I couldn’t cope with the stress and pressure”.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Julie Tan 陈欣淇 (@julietan_cxq) on
The former Disney star has struggled with body confidence, anxiety, sobriety and drug-related issues in the past but she’s getting herself cleaned up and is learning to embrace her faults day-by-day.
“I think it’s important that people no longer look at mental illness as something taboo to talk about. It’s something that’s extremely common, one in five adults has a mental illness, so everyone is essentially connected to this problem and this epidemic,” says Demi.
“The problem with mental illness is people don’t look at it as a physical illness. When you think about it, the brain is actually the most complex organ in your body. We need to treat it like a physical illness and take it seriously.”
Stefanie said in an interview that: “There was a period when I was working non-stop and getting increasingly depressed.”
In that same interview, she revealed that she battled with such emotions for a year and finally got over it when she thought about the people she worked with and realised that they work just as hard, but don’t get to enjoy the kind of perks she does.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Sun Yanzi 孙燕姿 (@stefsunyanzi) on
Going through heartbreak is a brutal experience, one that could understandably worsen symptoms of stress. Yvonne shared that she suffered from extreme depression following the stress of one of her ex-boyfriends leaving her some years ago.
Thankfully, she recovered when she thought of her family. Today, Yvonne is in a happy place and is residing in Taipei with her husband and ex-Taiwanese boy band B.A.D member Alex Tien and two kids.
This post was updated on October 10, 2019.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by ??Yvonne Lim✨✨ (@yvonnelim928) on