11 celebrities who spoke up about their battle with depression

Adele: Back in 2016, the British singer opened up about struggling with postpartum depression and alcohol use in a new interview. Adele told Vanity Fair she felt like she had made “the worst decision” of her life after having her son, Angelo, who’s now eight. She says she eventually had to spend some time alone in order to overcome her postpartum depression. Adele also spoke about cutting back on her drinking and quitting smoking.

Katy Perry: Earlier this month, the American singer, who is pregnant with her first child, took to social media to talk about her battle with depression. The singer, who is expecting a girl with Hollywood actor Orlando Bloom, posted a message on Twitter that soon drew in support from a legion of her fans. “Sometimes I don’t know what’s worse trying to avoid the virus or the waves of depression that come with this new norm,” wrote Perry on Twitter. This was not the first time Perry has spoken up about her struggle with mental health. In an interview with Vogue earlier this year, she stated: “In the past, I had been able to overcome it, but this time something happened that made me fall down too many flights of stairs. I had to really go on a mental health journey.”

Reese Witherspoon: The ‘Legally Blonde’ star opened up on her battle with post-partum depression last month, admitting that she had very different experiences after each birth. The mother of three spoke up during an interview on a podcast, she opened up about her battles with mental health over the years, admitting she first had therapy at the age of 16. “I definitely had anxiety. My anxiety manifests as depression so I would get really depressed. My brain is like a hamster on a wheel and it won’t come off, I’ve been managing it my entire life,” said the 44-year-old. “I was 23 years old when I had my first baby and nobody explained to me that when you wean a baby, your hormones go into the toilet. I felt more depressed than I’d ever felt in my whole life. It was scary.”

Dakota Johnson: The Hollywood actress also recently opened up about her struggle with depression since she was a teenager. In an interview with Marie Claire, the ‘Fifty Shades’ actress spoke at length about getting help since childhood. “I’ve struggled with depression since I was young — since I was 15 or 14. That was when, with the help of professionals, I was like, oh, this is a thing I can fall into.” She also admitted in the interview that she is in a “lot of therapy”, especially now, with the coronavirus pandemic making her anxious. “I’m constantly thinking about the state of the world right now. It keeps me up at night, all night, every night... My brain goes to crazy dark places with it,” she said in the interview.

Deepika Padukone: The Bollywood star, who has long been spreading awareness about mental health disorders, curated a wellness guide for people struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this week. Padukone posted the wellness guide on Twitter, asking people not to hesitate to seek support when going through emotional turmoil. Earlier this year, the actor was also awarded the Crystal Award at the World Economic Forum in Davos for spreading awareness about the importance of mental health. Padukone started voicing her opinion on the importance of mental health through her ‘The Live Love Laugh Foundation’ (TLLLF) in June 2015 when she spoke about her own battle with depression.

Zachary Levi: The ‘Shazam!’ actor has been vocal about his battle with depression, speaking to Gulf News about it last year when he was in Dubai during the Middle East Film and Comic Con. The 39-year-old Hollywood actor said in the interview: “I got to the age of 37 and I just fell through the door. I had gone to some therapy prior to that, going through couples counselling in my previous marriage and trying to get to the bottom root of things that were going on in my life that were making me unhappy.” The actor further stated: “… I genuinely wasn’t sure I wanted to live anymore. I found this incredible place and, for three weeks straight, I did all of the therapy.”

Hrithik Roshan: In 2016, Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan opened up about his battle with depression and appealed to people remove the stigma associated with mental health. “I’ve been through my ups and downs. I have experienced depression. I have experienced confusion, as we all do. It’s a very normal thing. We should be very casual about it when we speak about it,” Roshan told PTI. “I have experienced issue in my own personal life, we all go through ups and downs. The ups are important, the downs are [also] important because you evolve through both of them.” The actor said he has seen many of his friends silently battle depression and other mental issues, which prompted him to dig deep into the matter.

Chrissy Teigen: The model and social media queen revealed in 2017 that she has battled post-partum depression since the birth of her daughter Luna. Teigen penned an essay for Glamour magazine that she has been “unhappy” for much of 2016 and discovered she was suffering from post-partum depression. She also admitted she had taken antidepressants for the depression and anxiety and had also gone in for therapy.

Parineeti Chopra: The Bollywood star opened up about her own battle with depression in 2017, crediting her brother Sahaj for helping her through her toughest times. “I think every human being who considers themselves to be emotionally evolved, always have this one very big event or one person who comes into their lives and completely changes the way they think. And I can say very confidently that happened in my life,” Chopra said in a statement. “A couple of years ago, I went through a very low phase emotionally in my life where I was really down in the dumps. It wasn’t like a person especially came into to my life, but it was a person who has always been in my life — my brother Sahaj.” The actress said her fight against depression lasted for “almost a year”, but she fought it and emerged a “more positive” person.

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson: The Hollywood actor and former WWE star went public with his secret battle with depression in 2018. “Struggle and pain is real. I was devastated and depressed. I reached a point where I didn’t want to do a thing or go anywhere. I was crying constantly,” Johnson said in a statement. Before he hit the big leagues, Johnson suffered many a setback, including watching his mother try to commit suicide in front of him when he was 15.

Ileana D’Cruz: Another Bollywood star who brought depression out of the closet was Ileana D’Cruz, who admitted harbouring suicidal thoughts in 2017. Speaking at the 21st World Congress of Mental Health, the actress spoke about her struggles, saying: “I was always a very self-conscious person and was picked on for my body type. I used to feel low and sad all the time but didn’t know I was suffering from depression and body dysmorphic disorder till I got help. All I wanted to do was to be accepted by everyone. At one point, I even had suicidal thoughts and wanted to end things. However, all of it changed when I accepted myself and what I was going through. I think that is the first step towards fighting depression.”