Celebrity Sufferers

People in the media...

Johnny Depp may seem like he has everything. He is rich, talented, and let's face it, smoking hot. But it hasn't always been an easy road. As a teenager, he spiralled out of control, cutting himself, taking drugs, drinking vast amounts and struggling with his anger. "There were many years I was feeling at a loss about my life or how I grew up. I couldn't understand what is right or what is precious. At that time, I was so miserable and self-defeating. I was feeling angry with various things. Even now there is anger and the dark side in myself. But it's the first time I've been so close to the light."

The beautiful Cameron Diaz suffers from OCD. She has a fear of doorknobs and only opens doors with her elbows to avoid germs. She also compulsively cleans her house and repeatedly washes her hands.

Zach Braff is most famous for his role in the comedy series Scrubs however his life is not always a barrel of laughs. He suffers from depression and has revealed that a character that he played in Garden State was very similar to his real life situation. “To have millions of people go, ‘I watched your movie and related,’ was the ultimate affirmation that I’m not a freak.”

People of influence...

Vincent Van Gogh, famous painter and artist was labeled peculiar with unstable moods most of his short life. Many have tried to give a definitive diagnosis of his illness through reading his personal letters.

From them it seems clear that his depressive states were also accompanied by manic episodes of enormous energy and great passion. Van Gogh committed suicide at age 37.

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain who, as one of the “Big   Three” (Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin) lead the world to the defeat of Hitler in WWII, told in his own writings of suffering from “black dog” Churchill’s term for severe and serious depression.

Florence Nightingale dedicated her life to caring for the sick, reforming the public health system and improving military medicine. She accomplished her goals in spite of a lifelong illness that kept her bedridden for decades, an illness now believed to have been bipolar disorder.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of U.S. suffered from severe and debilitating and on occasion suicidal depressions. “A tendency to melancholy” Lincoln once wrote in a letter to a friend, “...let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault.” The most amazing part of his story was the sheer determination he had to overcome his problem and still achieve all he was able to for America while it was at war with itself.