11 Celebrities who have opened up about their struggles with mental health

In honour of World Mental Health Day, here are 11 celebrities who have candidly, and courageously opened up about their struggles with mental health. From Carrie Fisher to Kendall Jenner, here are their stories...

1. Adele

"I can slip in and out of [depression] quite easily," the singer told Vanity Fair. "I had really bad postpartum depression after I had my son, and it frightened me," she said. "I didn't talk to anyone about it. I was very reluctant...Four of my friends felt the same way I did, and everyone was too embarrassed to talk about it."

2. Ryan Reynolds 

Speaking to Variety about the anxiety he experienced while filming Deadpool, Reynolds said "I never, ever slept. Or I was sleeping at a perfect right angle — just sitting straight, constantly working at the same time. By the time we were in post [production], we’d been to Comic-Con, and people went crazy for it. The expectations were eating me alive."

3. Kendall Jenner 

"I have such debilitating anxiety because of everything going on that I literally wake up in the middle of the night with full-on panic attacks," the model told Cara Delevingne in an interview. "Where do I even start? Everything is so horrible, it’s hard to name one thing. I just think that the world needs so much love. I wish I had the power to send Cupid around the planet, as cheesy as that sounds. You go online and you see everyone saying the worst things to each other, and it’s hard to stay positive. It’s hard not to get eaten alive by all the negativity."

4. Chrissy Teigen 

In an essay she wrote for Glamour, Chrissy said: "I also just didn’t think it could happen to me. I have a great life. I have all the help I could need: John, my mother (who lives with us), a nanny. But postpartum does not discriminate. I couldn’t control it. And that’s part of the reason it took me so long to speak up: I felt selfish, icky, and weird saying aloud that I’m struggling. Sometimes I still do."

Carrie Fisher 

"I have a chemical imbalance that, in its most extreme state, will lead me to a mental hospital," Fisher told Diane Sawyer. "I used to think I was a drug addict, pure and simple — just someone who could not stop taking drugs willfully. And I was that. But it turns out that I am severely manic depressive. You can't stop. It's very painful. It's raw. You know, it's rough... your bones burn... when you're not busy talking and trying to drown it out."

5. Beyoncé

"It was beginning to get fuzzy―I couldn't even tell which day or which city I was at. I would sit there at ceremonies and they would give me an award and I was just thinking about the next performance," the pop-star told The Sun back in 2011. "My mother was very persistent and she kept saying that I had to take care of my mental health."

6. Miley Cyrus 

In an interview, Cyrus said "[Depression is] more of an issue than people really want to talk about. Because people don't know how to talk about being depressed—that it's totally okay to feel sad. I went through a time where I was really depressed. Like, I locked myself in my room and my dad had to break my door down. It was a lot to do with, like, I had really bad skin, and I felt really bullied because of that. But I never was depressed because of the way someone else made me feel, I just was depressed."

7. Lena Dunham 

"Promised myself I would not let exercise be the first thing to go by the wayside when I got busy with Girls Season 5 and here is why: it has helped me with my anxiety in ways I’ve never dreamed possible," Dunham wrote on Instagram. "To those struggling with anxiety, OCD, depression: I know it’s mad annoying when people tell you to exercise, and it took me about 16 medicated years to listen. I’m glad I did. It ain’t about the ass, it’s about the brain."

8. Dakota Johnson 

Speaking about her anxiety, the actress said "Sometimes I panic to the point where I don't know what I'm thinking or doing. I have a full anxiety attack….I have them all the time anyway, but with auditioning it's bad. I'm so terrified of it."

9. Demi Lovato 

"I think it's important that people no longer look at mental illness as something taboo to talk about," Lovato said at the National Council for Behavioural Health in Washington DC. "It's something that's extremely common, one in five adults has a mental illness, so basically everyone is essentially connected to this problem and this epidemic. The problem with mental illness is people don't look at it as a physical illness. When you think about it, the brain is actually the most complex organ in your body. We need to treat it like a physical illness and take it seriously."

10. Ellen DeGeneres 

"When I walked out of the studio after five years of working so hard, knowing I had been treated so disrespectfully for no other reason than I was gay, I just went into this deep, deep depression. It's so corny but it's true. You have no idea where the darkest times of your life might end, so you have to just keep going."

 11. Jared Padalecki

"I, for a long time, have been passionate about people dealing with mental illness and struggling with depression, or addiction, or having suicidal thoughts and, strangely enough, it's almost like the life I live, as well," the actor told Variety. "I was 25 years old. I had my own TV show. I had dogs that I loved and tons of friends and I was getting adoration from fans and I was happy with my work, but I couldn't figure out what it was; it doesn't always make sense is my point. It's not just people who can't find a job, or can't fit in in society that struggle with depression sometimes."

 If in the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email [email protected]. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.