I was reading one of my favorite magazines, Glamour, when I came across an article that really caught my eye. The title of the article read “Yeah, We’re Depressed. So What?” and it talked about celebrities such as Emma Stone and Amanda Seyfried who were opening up about their mental health to the tabloids. The article was based on interviews with these stars in which they told their story of depression or anxiety. One actress, Olivia Munn, told Glamour that because of her anxiety she would “pluck out her eyelashes” (Witney Joiner, Glamour), a case commonly known as trichotillomania. This article then reported “Here’s what that means for the rest of us.”.
At first when I read that statement, I felt a stab of resentment. What makes the depression of these stars different from someone’s who isn’t famous? The question had me wondering if the depression that people felt could be weighed and measured by the class you live in.
When I began my search, all I found were articles on why lower class people have poor health and why upper class people have trouble reading emotions. This in no way answers my question. When I went deeper into research, I found an article (Socioeconomic Status and Depression in Life Course Perspective; Richard Allen Miech, Michael J. Shanahan, Glen H. Elder, Jr.) about how age and social status relates to depression. This was a bit more helpful because it reported a finding that depression was more common in people who were struggling financially than people who were not. I thought at first this answered my question, but then I realized that I wasn’t wondering if there was a difference, I was wondering why there is a difference. Why are people in different social classes and financial statuses considered different when it comes to their mental health as humans?
The article I read in Glamour was almost like a “Stars; They’re Just Like Us!” section, and yet it ended by saying that people were not being helped by this article, but instead self-diagnosed their own depression as almost a way of being similar to their favorite movie star. As if to say, “I love Emma Stone, I want to be just like her…Depressed!”. This was not at all the aim of the article, in fact it warned people not to self-diagnose and to talk to their doctor is they are having feelings of extreme sadness or anxiety.
I couldn’t understand why people would want to feel depression just because they know that their favorite actress is having some difficulties with their own mental health. Depression is not an identity, it’s a disease. It should not be treated like a social status, and just because celebrities have talked about their own struggles does not mean that they are only talking to the press about it. Each star said that they were talking to a doctor, a doctor that they are paying for just like they would be if they were not Spider Man’s girlfriend. Just because the story may be an exclusive look into the lives of stars does not mean that depression is an exclusivity that is somehow a new trend. Dealing with depression, although it may be unique to every person, is not something that a star has to do because they are famous; it is something that a person has to do because they are human.
-Anna Taddei, Anxiety In Teens Contributor