Our society has been increasingly more receptive to mental illnesses over the past decade or so. I was on the internet and found an interview that actress Winona Ryder did with ABC, after she executive produced the 1999 film, Girl, Interrupted. At the time, she was considered brave to publicly speak out about her fight with depression and her anxiety attacks she suffered as a young adult.
You look at most celebrities out there nowadays, and you notice that they all have something in common. Mental illness. Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses, and most celebrities admit to having suffered from the disease.
It’s pretty obvious, if you look at the facts, that the stigma surrounding mental illness has become less severe over the years. Depression, doesn’t hold the “crazy” stereotype it once did. Heck if that were still true, most of us reading this would be considered crazy. Still, sadly it’s growing in number of how many people suffer from depression, but people now are more acceptable of reaching out.
I think back on that interview of Winona Ryder, and you can tell it was a big deal at the time. The questions they asked her, and situations she talked about being in, were things the public weren’t used to hearing from a celebrity then. She talks about hiding the fact she was depressed and having anxiety attacks from her co-workers, out of fear that they’d think she was “crazy”.
It’s relieving to me to know that mental illness and it’s effect on people is so less taboo than it once was. That people are out there talking about it, and helping others, all while possibly helping themselves.
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