Various Celebrities Openly Discuss Dealing With Mental Health Issues

Various Celebrities Openly Discuss Dealing With Mental Health Issues

Because there is still, unfortunately, some stigma in many nations about mental health problems, I think it’s a good thing that more celebrities are speaking publicly about having these issues themselves, or they talk about how they’ve been impacted because they have friends who committed suicide.

Some of the celebrities I mention below were inspired to come forward and disclose their struggles after the suicides of famous individuals Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain.

JANET JACKSON (singer and actress)

Janet Jackson said her 30s were plagued with mental health issues.

Janet Jackson reveals ‘intense’ battle with depression.

… Speaking of her many ups and downs, the “Scream” singer admitted she went through an ‘Intense’ battle with depression, and finally found peace when she became a mother.

In the post, Jackson, 52, wrote that her 30s were her hardest time, as her depression “was intense.”

“Janet Jackson opens up about her ‘intense struggle’ with depression” via FOX NEWS – June 2018

By Rachel McRady‍ | ET Online

Janet Jackson is speaking out.

The 52-year-old pop icon pens a letter to her fans in the new issue of Essence magazine, which was shared on Wednesday’s Good Morning America.

Tricks for Savoring Summer’s Fleeting Delights by Laura Vanderkam

Tricks for Savoring Summer’s Fleeting Delights by Laura Vanderkam

Tricks for Savoring Summer’s Fleeting Delights

Psychological research has yielded various techniques for helping us to get more from our best moments—and even to plan for them.

By Laura Vanderkam

…. I was first introduced to “savoring” as a practical concept through the work of the research psychologists Fred B. Bryant and the late Joseph Veroff. In their 2006 book, “Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience,”  they noted that psychologists have long studied how some resilient people learn to cope with difficulty.

They thought it was an equally interesting adaptation to learn how to savor good things. As they showed, it’s possible  to take active steps to make life’s happy moments feel richer and last longer.

At 106 Years of Age, Champion Cyclist Robert Marchand Refuses to Stop Pedaling – When Younger, His Cycling Coach Told Him He’d Never Be A Champion

At 106 Years of Age, Champion Cyclist Robert Marchand Refuses to Stop Pedaling

At 106 Years of Age, Champion Cyclist Robert Marchand Refuses to Stop Pedaling

Feb 2018

In France, most people retire at around 62 years old. But it wasn’t until he turned 100 that Robert Marchand set his first world record in competitive cycling.

 

In 2012, Marchand became the fastest long-distance cyclist over the age of 100 after he pedaled 15 miles in an hour.

Then in 2017, he set a world record in the 105-and-up category — a category created just for him — by riding 14 miles in the same amount of time. He says it was one of the happiest days of his life.

“To be on top of the podium in front of all these people singing the French national anthem … it was a moment of incredible emotion,” says Marchand.

For him, these records aren’t about making money or being a champion.

“I don’t do this to be a world champion,” says Marchand. “I do it to prove that if you follow a healthy lifestyle, you can still do a number of things … even at a really old age.”

That healthy lifestyle includes eating lots of fruits and vegetables and very little meat. He doesn’t smoke and says he only drinks the occasional glass of wine.

But Marchand’s friends attribute his incredible longevity to something else.

“To me, it’s his natural astonishment and curiosity,” says Gerard Mistler, Marchand’s friend and coach. “He was at my house last summer and he was astonished because he had just learned that his heart had beat 4 billion times over the course of his life.”

Told he would never be a champion 

Marchand was born in the northern French town of Amiens in 1911 — that’s nearly 6 months before the Titanic set sail and about three years before the start of World War I.

He hopped on a bike for the first time when he was just three years old, quickly adopting a passion for the sport. But when Marchand was 22, his cycling coach told him he would never make it professionally.

“I was told that I was too small and that I would never become a champion,” recounts Marchand.

So Marchand, who’s around 5 feet tall and 115 pounds, took up gymnastics and boxing, where his wiry frame would be an asset.

After becoming a champion in both sports, he held around a dozen different kinds of jobs over the years that sent him all over the world.

Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, and the Fallacy of Success and Happiness by Tanya Ba Su

Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, and the Fallacy of Success and Happiness by Tanya Ba Su

Most people believe high-profile stars like Bourdain and Spade must be happy given their success, but the truth is that beneath the facade often lies a grim reality.

On Tuesday morning, fashion designer Kate Spade committed suicide. A few days later, on Friday afternoon in Strasbourg, France, chef Anthony Bourdain committed suicide.

What stands out both Spade’s and Bourdain’s death is the fact that they represented, for many, what seemed to be success and happiness. Spade had sold her eponymous handbag collection in 2007, had a husband and a teenage daughter, and had swept up every fashion award humanly possible, and then some.

Likewise, Bourdain was a giant in his field, working up the ranks in the kitchen to becoming a talented chef, a widely read author, and achieving the pinnacle of his success in televised food documentaries that flung him to perilous corners of the Earth, first through No Reservations and then through Parts Unknown.

Beneath that sheen of success and happiness, however, there was depression—deep, unsettling, tumultuous depression that rocked both Spade and Bourdain, ultimately leading them to commit suicide.

Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade and Celebrity Suicides

Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade and Celebrity Suicides

Kate Spade was a famous fashion designer, and Anthony Bourdain was a famous chef.

Anthony Bourdain has died in an apparent suicide at 61  

Anthony Bourdain, world-traveling chef and TV star, dies at 61 in apparent suicide

Kate Spade’s Death Officially Declared Suicide by Hanging: Medical Examiner

Kate Spade, fashion designer, found dead in apparent suicide

Kate Spade’s brother slams speculation over sister’s mental health issues

In the wake of Kate Spade’s death, looking at suicide differently 

Celebrity suicides are a reminder we all shoulder a burden. We have to help each other carry it

One Lesson From Celebrity Suicides: Stop Deadpooling Troubled Stars (Guest Blog)

‘Shocking’ suicides of Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade reveal dangers of mental health stigma

…But unlike people with heart disease and cancer, those living with the mental health struggles that lead to suicide often don’t seek treatment or open up to friends and family about their deep despair.

Those who may try to hide their suffering can include famous, successful and outwardly happy, got-it-all-together celebrities like Spade and Bourdain.

Thirty Five Famous People Who Were Painfully Rejected Before Making It Big by R. Hodin

Thirty Five Famous People Who Were Painfully Rejected Before Making It Big

Thirty Five Famous People Who Were Painfully Rejected Before Making It Big

Excerpts:

by Rachel Hodin

Walt Disney

Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star in 1919 because, his editor said, he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”

Elvis

After a performance at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, Elvis was told by the concert hall manager that he was better off returning to Memphis and driving trucks (his former career).

Thomas Edison

He worked at Western Union where he used to secretly conduct experiments. Then, one night in 1867, he spilled some acid and it ate through the entire floor. He was fired and subsequently decided to just pursue inventing full time.

The 14 Simple Ways to Increase Happiness and They’re All Backed by Science

The 14 Simple Ways to Increase Happiness and They’re All Backed by Science

The 14 Simple Ways to Increase Happiness and They’re All Backed by Science

Excerpts:

Science reveals 14 simple ways people can feel more content.

This coincides with the International Day Of Happiness, which falls today.

From eating dark chocolate and drinking green tea to being grateful and meditating, lifestyle changes can make a bigger difference to people’s moods.

Studies even suggest something as simple as de-cluttering your desk can boost contentment by up to 40 per cent.

Going ‘Overboard’: Hollywood’s Glut of Gender-Swap Remakes

Going ‘Overboard’: Hollywood’s Glut of Gender-Swap Remakes

I first found the gender swap remake movies interesting, but as this has been going on for a few years now,  I’m getting a little tired of it.

I support more diversity in movies and television shows (as in more women characters), but it would be nice to see original content, as opposed to taking a movie or show from the 1980s and replacing male leads with female leads.

This must be a cyclical trend – the author of the piece below says gender swapping in movies is nothing new, but I don’t remember it being a ‘thing’ in the 1980s or 1990s so much.

Going ‘Overboard’: Hollywood’s Glut of Gender-Swap Remakes

June 2018, by AFP Relax News

From the polarizing “Ghostbusters” remake to the controversy over female versions of James Bond and Doctor Who, Hollywood’s proclivity for gender-swapped retreads is among its most enduring and contentious.

The trend — seen as empowering or annoying, depending on who you ask — is getting fresh attention with “Ocean’s 8” due for release on Friday, “Overboard” still in theaters and “What Men Want” coming out in January.

Toxic Fandom, Politicization of Entertainment Is Killing My Enjoyment of Movies – Including the Star Wars Franchise

Toxic Fandom, Politicization of Entertainment Is Killing My Enjoyment of Movies – including the Star Wars Franchise

(posted edited: new links added below) | Toxic Fan Culture: Michael Jackson Fans

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I’ve enjoyed watching movies since I was a kid.

I’ve also enjoyed reading professional movie reviews and critiques – and this was years before the advent of the internet.

In the last several years, though, things – especially online – have turned so negative that it’s been souring my excitement or enjoyment of movies (well, that, plus finding out that certain actors are not as nice in real life as they are in some of their movie roles).

Not only do average joe’s in comment boxes under professional movie reviews seem to have gotten bitter, hostile, and angry in the last few years, but professional movie reviewers have become extremely nit-picky.

At least one article I reference below contains quotes by someone who thinks fandom has always been negative, and had there been a Twitter in the 1980s and 1990s, that the fans would have been just as bad back then – I’m not sure I agree with that.

I do think social media has changed things (for the worse), but I also feel there’s been an overall shift in culture itself. I am not so sure that fans back in the ’80s and ’90s would have been as hateful as they have been behaving the last five to ten years.

Professional movie critics these days seem to have a personal vendetta against movies generally, or certain film franchises, genres, actors, or directors.

I don’t recall seeing that level of animosity from professional critics in the 1970s to the early 2000s.

Film critics back in the day seemed more detached, even-handed, and objective (which made their critiques easier and more enjoyable to read).