Mental Illness Among the Most Renowned Personalities

Mental Illness is the crucial topic of discussion among youth in the recent times. It is the rising issue of concern as there number of people suffering is rapidly increasing. With an intense race in the modern world, we often forget to treat ourselves.

However, a myth that flows is that the mental illness only affects people only when they are in the shadows. We tend to believe that the only reason that one suffers is overthinking about things. The issue has become so casual that anxiety and depression have become a trend across the world. There are people seeking attention over the internet for suffering from mental illness. Well, there might be people opening up on social media who actually need help.

There are some of the most popular personalities who have seen the mental illness up-close. We often believe the folk tale about how it affects a common person due to everyday lifestyle. Nonetheless, there are a lot of admirable big names that went through these phases of mental disorder.

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh is among the most well-known artists across the world. However, his paintings were completely infamous until his death. Van Gogh was suffering from psychosis for the most of his life. He was fond of absinthe (drink with the highest amount of alcohol). His brushwork was mainly among still-lifes, portraits and self-portraits. One of the most popular paintings was “the Starry Night” in 1888. Van Gogh committed suicide in 1890 before which he spent most of the years in medical centre.  

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Ludwig Van Beethoven is one of the most respectable composers in the history of western music. He was a German composer and pianist whose music was most popular in late 70s. However, Beethoven was a victim of mental illness due to a childhood trauma. He began to lose his hearing at 28 due to neurosyphilis and by 44, it was completely lost. Beethoven was suffering from depression and hearing loss due to the physical abuse by his father and brain trauma. He lost his life to alcohol in 26^th March, 1827.

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath is a Remarkable writer well-known for her poems and novels around the world. She was an accomplished author who was awarded Pulitzer prize in poetry in 1982. However, Sylvia was suffering from clinical depression for most of her adult life. She went through a treatment of electro-convulsive therapy multiple times. Her clinical depression soon got worse in 1962 after her separation with her husband. She took upon her shoulders, the responsibility of two kids. In 1963, she lost her life to suicide by placing her head in an oven.

Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres is one of the most lovable TV personalities in the recent times. She is a stand-up comic as well as hosts a celebrity talk show “The Ellen Show”. As a viewer, the show gives mellow vibes and complete fun. However, less known fact about the person who’s always smiling is that she was suffering from mental illness for a long time. Mental illness came to Ellen as a result of homophobic audience. She had to face immense hate for being gay which was the major reason of her depression and anxiety.

Virginia Woolf

The name of Virginia Woolf is written among the most accomplished writers. She is famous for her works like Mrs Dalloway, The Room of One’s Own and To the Lighthouse. Mental Illness had been troubling Virginia Woolf for most of her life. She was suffering from bipolar disorder and had failures while attempting suicide twice. Major reasons for her deteriorating health was sexual abuse and struggle with the writing life.  

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter, famous for the painting The Scream. His reasons of anxiety and mental sickness was majorly because of the family background. Munch’s father suffered from depression and sister was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Soon after, he had a mental breakdown and addiction to alcohol. He was also suffering from neurasthenia which was diagnosed a few years before he passed away.

Angelina Jolie

One of the highly respectable actors and beautiful women in Hollywood is Angelina Jolie. Jolie was suffering from depression at a very young age of her life. She was planning to commit suicide at 19, and again at 22. Her episodes of depression were so horrible that she tried to hire a hitman to kill her. At the age of 24, Jolie had a nervous breakdown and was undergoing a treatment at UCLA Medical Centre’s psychiatric ward for 72 hours.

J. K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling is significantly prominent for her novel series of Harry Potter. The author of the franchise opens up about her clinical depression. She says she has been suffering from her illness for an overlong phase of life. Rowling is often vocal about supporting people with mental health issues.

Adam Levine

Adam Levine is the lead singer of Maroon 5 and has high popularity among youth. He was lately vocal about his mental illness as a child. He mentions that he was experiencing Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder for most of his life. Sitting down to finish his school work or focusing in class would be really complex. As an adult, he is not able to pay attention while writing lyrics. However, he says “ADHD is not a bad thing, and you’re not alone”.

Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey is an American artist who majorly performs in comic roles. He recently mentions how he suffers from anxiety and depression. Carrey says he has taken Prozac for a long time to fight the symptoms. However, he no longer takes any medicines or stimulants like coffee.

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was an ambulance driver in World War I, who grew as a prominent author. He was suffering from depression and psychosis in most of his adult life until the shotgun suicide in 1961. The Nobel laureate’s depression was a result of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head.

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio is among the most popular and admirable celebrities from Hollywood. However, he has recently opened up about his Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. DiCaprio recently spoke about how he feels about walking on dirty sidewalks. Well, he adds that his OCD tendencies are under control.

David Beckham

David Beckham is a huge name in the football history. However, He recently in an interview opens up about how the struggles with mental health in his football career. Beckham mentions he suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and the difficulties he faces with it. He also says it was a major factor affecting him during the games.

Louis Wain

Louis Wain is a popular artist for his anthropomorphic illustrations of cats. He was married to Emily for 2 years before she died of breast cancer. A cat became a part of their family to accompany Emily. However, that is when Wain began painting Peter the Cat from every angle. The obsession of painting cats grew his mind Schizophrenic. He was suffering all of his life after Emily with the mental illness. It was his strong belief that the illness emphasizes his art. As a result, he did not want any treatment and chose to live his life as a cat illustrator.

Lady Gaga

The artist has a successful career in both music and film industry. Nonetheless, there was a different struggle that she was carrying through along her journey. Lady Gaga openly spoke in December, 2016 about her suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Her PTSD was a result of being a rape victim at the age of 19.   

Ileana D’Cruz

The World came to know about Ileana D’Cruz’s suffering at the 21^st World Congress of Mental Health. Ileana spoke about her depression and body dysmorphic disorder. She was mocked about her body type and faced a lot of criticism in her early life. She mentions how she was self-conscious about her body and went through suicidal thoughts because of the mental pressure.  

Francisco de Goya

Francisco de Goya is a famous Spanish painter. Goya lost his hearing and was bed-ridden because of his mental illness. The symptoms he experienced was not diagnosed at the time. There were various justifications for his deafening, syphilis, lead poisoning or Susac Syndrome. Goya was experiencing hallucinations and delirium frequently. However, the paintings of the artist began to improve with a deeper meaning and higher quality due to mental illness.

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was the most quintessential Victorian writer of United Kingdom in 1851. His writings include A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations and the evergreen Oliver Twist. However, Dickens was suffering for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Epilepsy since childhood. He also had seizures of fits on regular intervals of time. Dickens was an insomniac for most of his life, but was successful in channelling it towards his writings.  

Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran is undoubtedly a celebrated artist. However, he recently opens up about how he is suffering from crippling “social anxiety”. Ed mentions how he struggles to get together with large groups or gatherings.