15 celebs who positively raise awareness for mental health

Halsey

This singer, songwriter, and actress kept her bipolar disorder hidden from the public for a long time. It wasn’t until 2015 that she revealed in an interview with Elle that she’d struggled with it since she was 17 years old. She went on to say that the disease is hereditary and her mother suffers as well.

In recent years, Halsey has been more open about the thing she’s struggled with for years, mentioning to Marie Claire that she was hospitalized as a teen following a suicide attempt. She spent 17 days in a psych ward after overdosing on painkillers. She describes what it was like being medicated, gaining 30 pounds and throwing up every day at school. She eventually realized that there were other forms of therapy for her- writing poetry, playing instruments, and making art.

She owes a lot to music for managing her illness, and specifically, performing.

"That’s why I tour so much. I release endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine. Like, it’s literally a drug response."

The artist still may be young, but she’s come a long way since her teenage years. Being able to speak openly about it to her fans is making a difference. She wants to make it very clear that managing a mental illness isn’t easy, and nobody should have to do it alone.

Perhaps her most important quote is this: “I don’t manage my mental illness to keep up with my lifestyle; I manage my lifestyle to keep up with my mental illness.”