In Their Own Words: Celebrity Men Speak Up About Mental Health
So far this month we have explored Movember, or No-Shave November.
We’ve talked about the gender differences surrounding mental health, including how men and women experience and seek support (or don’t seek support) in very different ways.
We’ve talked about some of the factors that make it so hard for men to express their emotions and especially difficult emotions.
And we’ve shared a few of our favorite resources.
The rest of the month we are going to turn the conversation over!
Kind of, anyway. Thank you, internet!
This week we are going to check out some really wonderful examples of men in the celebrity world who are not afraid to talk openly about their mental health!
Let’s dive in!
Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool, IF, Chaostheory, Welcome to Wrexham, etc, etc, etc)
Reynolds first spoke openly about his anxiety in May 2021, and has said that his family (wife Blake Lively and their four kids) inspired him to take it public.
“Part of it is that I have three daughters at home and part of my job as a parent is to model behaviors and model what it’s like to be sad and model what it’s like to be anxious, or angry. That there’s space for all these things,” he said. “The home that I grew in, that wasn’t modeled for me really. And that’s not to say that my parents were neglectful, but they come from a different generation.”
“Part of that is to destigmatize things and create a conversation around [mental health],” Reynolds continued. “I know that when I felt at the absolute bottom, it’s usually been because I felt like I was alone in something I was feeling. So I think when people talk about it, I don’t necessarily dwell on it or lament on it, but I think it’s important to talk about it. And when you talk about it, it kind of sets other people free.”
Carson Daly (Today Show, The Voice, MTV)
While hosting the TODAY Show, Daly shared his struggle with general anxiety disorder. His reveal was prompted by a segment that aired on TODAY about NBA player Kevin Love, who detailed a panic attack he experienced during an NBA game.
I don’t buy into the stigma at all. I actually look at my mental health journey as one of the strong points of my life and there’s so much positive that comes from it as well as the negative.
One of Daly’s passions is hosting “Mind Matters,” an ongoing TODAY series dedicated to sharing powerful mental health stories of everyday people and how they cope. The stories appear across the TODAY broadcast, TODAY.com, and the TODAY All Day streaming platform.
Daly has helped create over 20 segments on a wide range of topics related to mental health including homelessness, eating disorders, and issues facing the Black community. Some of the interviews he conducted include Peloton instructor Kendall Toole about suicide, former Ohio State University football player Harry Miller about depression, and Darius Smith, cofounder of Black Space, which offers free group therapy sessions with communities of color in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (WWE, Moana, The Other Guys, Jumanji, etc, etc)
“My first bout of depression was down there in Miami,” he confessed. “I didn’t want to go to school. I was ready to leave,” he said. “I left school. I didn’t take any midterms and I just left. I just didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know what mental health was. I didn’t know what depression was. I just knew I didn’t want to be there. Wasn’t going to any of the team meetings. Wasn’t participating in anything. I wasn’t working out.”
“Luckily, at that time, I had some friends who I could lean on and say, ‘You know, I’m feeling a little wobbly now. Got a little struggle happening. I’m seeing a little gray and not the blue.'”
Notably, The Rock stressed how important it is for men to talk about their feelings. For far too long, men were considered weak in expressing their emotions – especially regarding their anxiety and mental health. Every member of the WWE Universe can learn a thing or two from the sentiment that he’s passed along to us this week.
Kevin Love (This article is super recent, friends! From October! Btw he’s an NBA star.)
When Love landed on the Minnesota Timberwolves as the No. 5 pick, he was already struggling to manage depression – which he said traces back multiple generations on his father’s side – and anxiety that had dogged him since his high school days in Oregon.
Love coped by keeping the world at arm’s length and turning inward, convinced that revealing his struggles would be perceived as a weakness that could compromise his career development.
Love disclosed in his March 2018 essay for the Players’ Tribune that he had suffered a panic attack during a November 2017 game against the Atlanta Hawks, an episode that led him to seek therapy and, eventually, to speak out about his mental health battle. Ten seasons of silence was long enough, especially because he still faced constant pressure to compete for championships.
“The [mental health] work has made me more comfortable in my own skin,” Love said. “It feels good being able to help others, share my experiences and learn from them as well.
(Article from The Washington Post)
Conclusion: If Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne Johnson have had their struggles, why can’t we all talk about our own struggles, right?
The point is, once again:
You are not alone.
This life can be really hard sometimes, and everyone is dealing with something.
A big part of the mission of Ready to Hope is simply normalizing that truth.
We’re all facing challenges of some sort. Maybe not all the time, and maybe in varying degrees from one moment to the next, but everyone is dealing with something.
We hope you’ll take this message to heart, and know that we here at Ready to Hope are here for you!
Yes, we offer workshops, and we hope you’ll hop on our email list below and stay up to date about our workshops.
But we are also here for you, period. You can email Cori here, or reach out to us on social, below- for any reason!
Until next time remember: there is always a way through!