Mental Health Awareness Through Celebrities in Media
Mireia Bustamante
‘The greatest mistake we can make is living in constant fear that we will make one.” - John C. Maxwell. Mental health refers to a person’s psychological and emotional well-being. This affects how a person thinks and feels about daily interactions they encounter throughout their life. With the ability to perform effectively and efficiently in areas of life including employment, social interactions, and relationships, it is all characterized by stable mental health. Social well-being refers to one person's ability to maintain positive relationships with other people. Mental Health has been a taboo topic throughout history. In 2020, the number of social media posts surrounding mental health shared through Tik Tok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat grew by 80.53% from previous years. Mental health is a serious issue affecting millions of people worldwide. Anxiety and depression, according to Inspira Health Network, make up around 30 percent of all diagnoses in America. With the increase in social media usage, once the quarantine in 2020 began, many people including A-List celebrities have increasingly been using media platforms to engage with their fans and followers. Several celebrities have shared their experiences dealing with mental health issues on social media platforms over the years. To investigate the analytics posted on media by celebrities, information, and data has been collected through article, news, and media stories. The impact of celebrity mental health posts made online versus an average person and the post they share publicly as well.
A thorough search of academic databases such as Cosmopolitan, US Weekly, E! News, PubMed, and The New York Times was conducted for the literature review. The search terms included "mental health," "celebrities," "social media," "posts," and "impact." For this review, 5 articles were chosen. Alongside the articles researched data analytics from Twitter were also investigated. It was found that Celebrities like Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, BTS, and Selena Gomez, had their fanbases speak out about how these singers positively made an impact on their mental health.
According to the article, media, and news review findings, celebrity mental health posts publicly online have a substantial impact on the public's opinion of mental health. Many of the papers evaluated discovered that celebrity mental health posts were well welcomed by the public and contributed to the reduction of stigma connected with mental illness. With that, the researchers discovered that celebrities' sharing of personal experiences had a powerful effect on encouraging individuals to seek help for their own mental health concerns. It helped fans of these celebrities feel comfortable. According to one article, celebrities expressing their mental health stories on social media platforms can serve as a tool for building community and increasing discourse about mental health issues. This can make people feel less isolated in their situations. Another article stated that, while celebrity mental health posts might help reduce stigma and encourage assistance-seeking behavior, there is a risk of trivializing mental health issues if not treated with caution. Celebrity endorsements of self-care and self-help approaches can be beneficial, but they should be supplemented with professional support and treatment.
By studying analytics and reviewing data, it is shown that celebrity mental health posts shared online have a positive impact on the public's perception of mental health. Celebrities sharing their experiences can help to eliminate the stigma connected with mental illness and urge people to seek assistance. It can be hard to dictate somebody’s emotions, the data that was gathered from Twitter shows the public the impact a celebrity may have on a person. However, it is critical to approach these positions with caution and to ensure that they are accompanied by professional support and treatment. Overall, the research emphasizes the power of social media platforms and celebrity influence to raise mental health awareness and improve the well-being of people all around the world.
In an article published by The Learning Network through The New York Times, it goes over many celebrities who have publicly shared their own personal experiences when it comes to mental health. For example, Selena Gomez talks about her personal experiences with bipolar disorder, psychosis, anxiety, and lupus. Ariana Grande, Adele, and Taylor Swift also speak up about their mental health through the songs they release to the public. Meghan Thee Stallion is an advocate for speaking up about mental health; Stallion has launched a website dedicated to the National Alliance on Mental Health. Pamela Paul states through opinion essays that “each generation gets a slate of pop starts attuned to its own aspirations and insecurities.” Paul speaks up about the online culture and many supporters create expectations from today's celebrities and their vulnerability.
Students in Texas, Chicago, Maryland, and Missouri were asked what it is like to see celebrities show their vulnerability through music, movies, shows, or songs. Many of them stated that they were very appreciative and did not expect to see that side of a person who lives a “dream life.” While many students were very appreciative, others were concerned stating that they almost viewed it as a struggle that they would want us to have. A student from Fountain Valley High School states that overall, celebrities are just like us, and when they open up about their struggles it shows people that they are just like us, despite their financial and social persona. Anne from Glenbard West High School says that she is very appreciative of people like Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift as they have spent much of their life trying to appear perfect, she admires how they share their struggles. Even though she states that she is grateful for this, she is concerned over the fact that influencers rather than celebrities try to fake mental health struggles for attention. She says, “This is much more common in internet influencers as opposed to A-list celebrities, and it is both annoying and invalidating of true struggles, I appreciate when celebrities share meaningful struggles in an effort to inspire and relate to their fanbase.”
One student named Jack shared a personal story saying that Logic, a singer/songwriter released “his masterpiece ‘1-800-273-8255’ in a particularly dark time of my mental health when I was seriously contemplating suicide, saving my life being vulnerable.” This song's title is the suicide hotline number.
While there is so much appreciation for these celebrities and their honesty with their fans, some people think that not all struggles are meant to be shared online and with fans. Jackson from Brownsboro High School states “There are plenty of celebrities who have opened up about struggles in a positive way. The difference between the two is in how they opened up about it. A positive way would be talking about overcoming the obstacle and offering advice to others dealing with the issue. A negative way of opening up is doing so in a way to gain pity or to excuse bad decisions.” And “I am usually left feeling disappointed by those our society looks up to.”
It’s great that people can see insight into what celebrities go through, but does anybody ever care if it’s just a random person from Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter? Overall, social media has become an outlook for people to speak up about their own personal struggles. With the data gathered from Twitter, many individuals speak up about their personal opinions regarding what is being shared online. Just like celebrity appreciation, people feel the same regarding a random person sharing how they feel about mental health-related media. With data collected via Twitter, user @Colinde0226485 states that he is aware of all the media being posted online, but what person would take time out of their day to ask genuine questions to a random stranger?
Finding data on Twitter, there seems to be an ongoing controversial conversation regarding how people are reacting to and treating mental health.
An article written by Amanda Macmillan for Time magazine goes over “Why Instagram is The Worst Social Media for Mental Health” stating that a survey conducted by The Royal Society for Public Health called #StatusOfMind in May of 2017, the report examined the impact of how social media platforms affected different aspects of peoples wellbeing on their mental and physical health. With replies from over 1470 respondents from ages 14-24, youtube received the highest scores for positive impact on mental and physical health, out of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube, and Instagram, Youtube was the only platform to receive a net positive score from respondents. Following that, Twitter came in second. Snapchat and Instagram were ranked as the most detrimental to mental health and an individual's well-being. While all platforms were ranked positively for self-identity, self-expression, emotional support, and community building, all media sites received negative scores for aspects including body image, FOMO (fear of missing out) bullying, sleep quality, and anxiety. The survey went over Instagrams association with anxiety and body image issues, and with many respondents saying that photos on the platform promoted unrealistic expectations and low self-esteem. One respondent said, “Instagram easily makes girls and women feel as if their bodies aren’t good enough as people add filters and edit their pictures in order for them to look ‘perfect’.” The Royal Society has called for social media companies to make changes to reduce the harmful effects of social media on children and young adults. The report recommends the introduction of a pop-up “heavy usage” warning within these apps or websites, as well as a way to highlight when photos of people have been digitally manipulated. The government can also help by incorporating “safe social media use” into health education in schools and by training professionals who work with youth in digital and social media.
Following that, there are tons of collected data regarding how a person can feel regarding their self-image, anxiety, and body image. Taken from Twitter, user @elusivecrawfish says that he is not sure if it is worth posting on Twitter due to the fact that nobody cares. User @Calhoun__Tubbs states that “Nobody actually cares about your mental health…It just looks good for a social media post and makes people feel like they're deep”. With the amount of hypocrisy, lack of respect, and concern people have developed over the years due to the increase in social media usage, Caroline Flack through Hello! Magazine, writes about how people lose a sense of responsibility and self-awareness in media; This is a process known as deindividuation when their anonymity means they have no need to regulate their behavior online. So why does it seem more concerning and important when a celebrity shares media related to mental health rather than when somebody who isn't famous does?
Jacquelyn Johnson wrote an article through PsychCentral that covers something called “celebrity worship syndrome”. To get more understanding, celebrity worship syndrome means you shape your life around someone with whom you’ve never had meaningful interactions with. Celebrity influence, it is very much possible that you could change your lifestyle, do humanitarian work, or gain motivation all from viewing something a celebrity does. Yes, it may be nice to get a feel for change, but this can eventually start to create negative relationships with the ones around us whom we talk to on a daily basis. In 2002, a celebrity attitude scale was developed which is designed to assess celebrity worship syndrome levels and how each has high levels of impact on mental well-being. Of course, there is no direct cause of celebrity worship syndrome, but it is common with mental illnesses in people who struggle with attachment issues, low self-esteem, narcissism, anxiety, and depression. In 2018, another study was run where chances of developing celebrity worship syndrome include obsessive internet use. Below is an example where this “syndrome” has affected a person firsthand.
Going back to quarantine during covid in 2020, many people began to struggle with personal well-being, not only were their relationships with other people affected, their relationship with themselves and how they chose to interact with people was affected as well. It can be hard for a person to reach out for help when they are struggling to open up and maintain stability with the people around them and themselves.
Some of the reasons why people who tend to struggle with opening up about mental health can feel a list of things, for example;
- Fear of being judged: People who tend to struggle with anxiety may feel that opening up about mental health may result in people going against them or over-dramatizing a situation.
- lack of understanding: It is very common for a person to not fully understand mental health issues, and with that, it can be difficult for somebody to gather and realize that certain mental health situations are hard to talk about because they don't know the importance of it.
-Fear of being a burden: Many people may feel that if they open up about mental health, people will find them annoying and this can cause a person to feel guilty for expressing their concerns with personal struggles.
- Past experiences: People may have received a reaction from somebody when trying to advocate for mental health, and with this, it can cause somebody to not be honest with themselves in terms of talking about something firsthand.
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