Stars Who've Spoken Out About Their Struggles With Mental Health Issues

JAMES FRANCO

Immediately after overcoming addictions as a 17-year-old, Franco turned to acting, which he revealed became like an addiction. "I really threw myself into it, and that became everything, to the point where I didn’t even socialize,” he explained to OUT magazine. “And then after, like, 10 years of that, at age 27, I realized, ‘Man, I’m so depressed. On the surface my life seems pretty good—I have a career and everything— but I feel isolated and lonely.'”

ELLE KING

The “Ex’s and Oh’s” singer revealed on Instagram that she has been struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. “... Today, while working through my PTSD with my doc, I felt that door inside of me open up just a little bit more,” King wrote. “It used to be covered in caution tape and red lights flashing DO NOT OPEN. But I felt a cool little breeze and it wasn’t as scary peeping through.”

She goes on to explain how she is making “healthy choices” and practicing self-care, admitting, “In those times all I had to do was refocus and take back control of MY OWN MIND ... Today, if presented with two options, I will CHOOSE the one that is most beneficial and happy for me right then and there,” King shared, promising that she is “definitely going to love” herself.

GINA RODRIGUEZ

The Jane the Virgin star opened up about her long battle with anxiety in an Instagram post that featured a short video of the actress — barefaced and staring at the camera, as part of photographer Anton Soggiu's Ten Second Portraits series. "I suffer from anxiety. And watching this clip I could see how anxious I was but I empathize with myself. I wanted to protect her and tell her it's ok to be anxious, there is nothing different or strange about having anxiety and I will prevail," Rodriguez wrote. "I like watching this video. It makes me uncomfortable but there is a freedom I feel maybe even an acceptance. This is me."

GABOUREY SIDIBE

After a years-long battle with depression and panic attacks, the actress and author of This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare decided to get some help in the form of a therapist and doctor, who prescribed her an antidepressant to better manage her mental health.

"I just accepted depression as something that’s part of my anatomy; it's part of my chemistry, it's part of my biology," Sidibe told PEOPLE. "When it’s too big for me to just turn around on my own, I see a therapist. I see a therapist anyway. We all should see a therapist. If only for the hour a week that you can talk about yourself and not worry about monopolizing the conversation? F—ing do it, it’s worth it!"

ELIZABETH VARGAS

The ABC News Anchor spoke candidly about her lifelong battle with anxiety for a new campaign with the Child Mind Institute, a nonprofit that works with children struggling with mental health and learning disorders.

"My earliest memories as a little girl are infused and filled with worry and fear," Vargas said in a PEOPLE exclusive video discussing her battle, citing her father's deployment to Vietnam when she was 6 years old at the root of her panic attacks.

"I couldn't control it and I couldn't explain why I would sob and cry and plead and beg for my mom not to leave me every day," she said. "This wasn't a time when people were paying a lot of attention to the children of soldiers at war. No one asked me why I was panicking and I kept my panic a secret. I felt ashamed of it. I hid it as I grew older."

RYAN TEDDER

In a Facebook post, Tedder opened up about his band OneRepublic's four-month hiatus, attributing the break to anxiety. "I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, not sleeping, on meds, not happy, anxiety on a crippling level and it was triggered from sheer exhaustion," wrote the OneRepublic frontman, detailing the band's nearly nonstop schedule since they formed a decade ago.

"I called my manager and said 'pull the plug' ... cancel tv's cancel promo, cancel the single, cancel the album," he added. "At the time we had a tour planned for the US in February, straight into Europe and then the rest of the world. We were gonna be gone again, for ages. The thought of it literally sent me into a sweat and made me feel like I was going to have a heart attack. Crippling anxiety. It also made me stop writing songs. I didn't have the motivation or joy necessary to. That's over now."

The performer concluded the post by stating that he has been working on music. The band released "No Vacancy" on April 28.

PRINCE HARRY

"I can safely say that losing my mom at the age of 12 and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years has had quite a serious effect on not only my personal life but also my work as well," the royal said, opening up to The Telegraph about losing his mom, Princess Diana. "My way of dealing with it was sticking my head in the sand, refusing to ever think about my mum because why would that help?"

It took 17 years before Prince Harry sought out help, eventually going to counseling, where he was able to finally open up. "I've now been able to take my work seriously, and take my private life seriously, as well, and be able to put blood, sweat, and tears into the things that really make a difference," he added. "Invictus would have never gotten off the ground if I hadn’t dealt with all that stuff beforehand."

JONATHAN LIPNICKI

The former Jerry Maguire child star wrote a moving Instagram post with the hope of helping others who struggle. "As a kid/teen, I was made fun of relentlessly by some people who are now even my friends on FB. I was told I was a has-been and would never book a job again," he shared. "I was made to feel like garbage every day of middle school to the point where I had a panic attack every night before school because I wondered how I would get through the day. It was humiliating." He added, "I’m not a victim, I’m a survivor and kids will hopefully see that they can be too."

GILLIAN ANDERSON

After releasing a self-help book called We: A Manifesto for Women Everywhere, the actress talked to The Guardian about her struggles with mental health and her road to recovery. Anderson’s anxiety stems back to her youth when she began therapy at age 14 and was voted “Most Likely to Get Arrested” by her high school classmates — a superlative she quickly proved to be correct when she was caught breaking into her school on the night of graduation. Her new book details many occasions when her mental health problems took over, sometimes leaving her wanting to isolate herself from the outside world. “There were times when it was really bad,” she revealed. “There have been times in my life where I haven’t wanted to leave the house.”

RICKI LAKE

Mental illness doesn't only affect those who suffer from it. Lake's ex-husband, jewelry designer Christian Evans, committed suicide at age 45 amid his battle with bipolar disorder, and now Lake is making it her mission to raise awareness about mental illness in hopes of helping others. "I never stopped loving that man," she told PEOPLE. "If only he could have believed in himself the way I believed in him."

KENDALL JENNER

"Anxiety was a huge hurdle for me to deal with this past year (and security concerns didn't help)," the supermodel wrote on her app. "But I think I'm finally learning how to cope." Jenner also went into detail describing a notable panic attack she experienced: "I once had a really bad attack on a plane and just had to ride it out," she wrote. "I felt my heart beating a million miles an hour and I even went a little numb."

EMMA STONE

"When I was about 7, I was convinced the house was burning down. I could sense it," she told Rolling Stone, opening up about growing up as a child with anxiety. "Not a hallucination, just a tightening in my chest, feeling I couldn't breathe like the world was going to end. There were some flare-ups like that, but my anxiety was constant." She added: "At a certain point, I couldn't go to friends' houses anymore – I could barely get out the door to school." Along with the help from therapy, performing became a major way for Stone to overcome her anxiety. "I started acting at this youth theater, doing improv and sketch comedy," she said. "You have to be present in improv, and that’s the antithesis of anxiety."

COLTON HAYNES

“Something’s been off lately,” Haynes wrote in a first-person piece dated Nov. 2, 2014, which the Teen Wolf actor has shared, two years later, in the current issue of Paper. Haynes — who publicly came out as gay in early 2016 — opened up in the magazine about suffering from mental health issues. "I honestly wake up after five hours of sleep wide-awake. It’s probably from the bottle of wine I drank before I finally fell asleep/passed out or a number of pills I’d had,” Haynes shared from the 2014 entry. “I read up on why I’m experiencing numbness and lack of circulation in my hands and feet and it’s due to the stimulants I’ve been taking for quite some time now.” The actor shared another first-person essay dated, Nov. 12, 2016, that demonstrates how far he's come since. "I’m finally realizing is that I can’t and wouldn’t want to go back to that headspace ever again. So clouded and unsure about myself, my life, my privacy, my mental health. I’m finally in a position where I can say I’m the happiest I’ve ever been,” he wrote. “I’ve accomplished so much with so little and my smile is finally not forced. I’ve taken control of my own life for the first time … I’m finally free.”

NAOMI JUDD

After years and years in the public eye, the 70-year-old country music star is finally opening up about her life-long struggle with mental health. "What I’ve been through is extreme. My final diagnosis was severe depression," Judd told ABC’s Robin Roberts in an interview on Good Morning America. "Treatment resistant because they tried me on every single thing they had in their arsenal. It really felt like, if I live through this I want someone to be able to see that they can survive." Judd wrote of her troubles in her new memoir River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope, in which she tells the story of how she reached "radical acceptance."

LADY GAGA

During an emotional visit with homeless, LGBTQ teens in New York City, the pop star opened up about a struggle she's kept secret her whole life. "I told the kids today, 'I suffer from PTSD.' I’ve never told anyone that before. So here we are," Gaga told Today of the visit. "But the kindness that’s shown to me by doctors as well as my family, and my friends, it’s really saved my life." She went on to explain how her own struggle allowed her to better understand the struggles facing teens who have pushed away from their families because of their sexuality. "These children are not just homeless or in need. Many of them are trauma survivors. They've been rejected in some type of way," she said. "My own trauma in my life has helped me to understand the trauma of others."

KIM KARDASHIAN WEST

On a recent episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kim Kardashian West revealed that she has been struggling with bouts of anxiety, soon after Kendall Jenner opened up about her own sleep paralysis. "I think we should find somebody for you two to talk to," mom Kris Jenner told Kardashian West. "So this doesn’t get bigger than it already is." While talking to a therapist, Kardashian West said that she just wanted to get past her anxiety and "take back her normal life."

AMANDA SEYFRIED

"I had pretty bad health anxiety that came from the OCD and thought I had a tumor in my brain," Seyfried told Allure, opening up about living with obsessive-compulsive disorder since she was a teenager. "I had an MRI, and the neurologist referred me to a psychiatrist … As I get older, the compulsive thoughts and fears have diminished a lot. Knowing that a lot of my fears are not reality-based really helps." As for mental illness itself, the actress also shared her viewpoint: "It should be taken as seriously as anything else. You don't see the mental illness: It's not a mass; it's not a cyst. But it's there." She continued: "Why do you need to prove it? If you can treat it, you treat it."

KID CUDI

The rapper discussed his ongoing experiences with anxiety and depression in a Facebook post announcing that he had checked himself into treatment. "It's been difficult for me to find the words to what I'm about to share with you because I feel ashamed. Ashamed to be a leader and hero to so many while admitting I've been living a lie," he began. "Yesterday I checked myself into rehab for depression and suicidal urges…My anxiety and depression have ruled my life for as long as I can remember…I guess I give so much of myself to others I forgot that I need to show myself some love too. I think I never really knew how. I'm scared, I'm sad, I feel like I let a lot of people down and again, I'm sorry. It's time I fix me. I'm nervous but ima get through this." The heartfelt message wasn't the first time Cudi has opened up about his battle with mental illness: "I used drugs to try to fix my depression," he revealed to Billboard in April. "I thought about how much of a struggle it has been the past eight years, to be on the news and pretend to be happy when, really, I was living a nightmare. But I can go anywhere, whenever I want. My daughter is in one of the best private schools in the nation. I have everything I ever dreamed of in terms of stability. But I hadn't been living that reality because depression was f---ing me up."

DEMI LOVATO

"I'm living well with my mental illness – I am actually functioning like a very happy person would," Lovato told PEOPLE in May, offering hope to sufferers of bipolar disorder who might fear they'll never live comfortably with their illnesses. "I have a brand-new puppy and I'm able to not only take care of myself but take care of him as well. I'm living my dream." The pop star is adamant about fighting the stigma that surrounds mood disorders, too. "I just think mental illness is something people need to learn more about and the stigma needs to be taken away from."

BROOKE SHIELDS

"I finally had a healthy beautiful baby girl and I couldn't look at her," Shields recalled at the 2009 Hope for Depression Research Foundation awards of the tortuous months following daughter Rowan's birth in 2003. "I couldn't hold her and I couldn't sing to her and I couldn't smile at her … all I wanted to do was disappear and die." Shields went on to stress that she wasn't wrong or broken, or an awful mother. "I learned that I wasn't doing anything wrong to feel that way. That it was actually out of my control."