Celebrity fixation and mental illness

Despite the special status attributed to celebrities in American culture, it seems that they are, in fact, not exempt from the struggles with mental illness that, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. will experience in a given year.  Celebrity fixation, however, has skewed societal thinking to a point where blatantly obvious symptoms of mental illness are perceived as yet another facet of an entertaining personality; it’s representative of the disconnect from reality that these players in the media frenzy help to fuel.  Did you ever wonder, for example, why it is that exhaustion seems to be an ailment exclusively targeting celebrities for bouts of hospitalization?  To have such a diagnosis is a luxury, to say the least—one that the everyday working person feeling tired or exhausted doesn’t get to have.

That same line of thinking that reveres actors and pop stars as somehow different from everyone else may just be what feeds into people’s fascination with the very human struggles that they, at times, display.  Unfortunately, however, viewing said struggles for entertainment purposes certainly doesn’t help any of the players involved. 

Rather than being acknowledged for what they are, symptoms of mental illness are dismissed or minimized—seen as acting/trolling/attention-seeking behavior.  Case-in-point: the recent media buzz surrounding Amanda Bynes and her “reckless behavior.”  Signs that, at least to me, scream "undiagnosed mental illness" seem to be laughed off or followed in amazement, like the proverbial train wreck that you can’t take your eyes off of.  [Despite different presenting symptoms, it’s reminiscent of Charlie Sheen and the media fascination surrounding his downhill spiral seemingly caused by a then-undiagnosed, untreated mental illness; of course, in the eyes of the media, Sheen was “winning.”]

In the meantime, these sorts of media crazes draw ample attention to the shortcomings of the mental health system, as it currently functions (or rather, doesn’t, as the case may be).  Too often, it seems that societal notions of “mental health” are concerned with taking belated action—rather than focusing on prevention or early intervention in the first place.  Often times, the laws in place for involuntary psychiatric hold, for example, end up exemplifying “too little too late” in practice. 
    This critique is certainly not a new one; as mentioned in this article on Involuntary Commitment by Alicia Curtis, there are some, such as a Dr. Paul Chodoff, who “[argue] that the involuntary commitment law should be broadened to allow commitment of those with a mental illness who need hospitalization due to the severe state of their illness, whether they are dangerous or not.”  There’s a whole lot more that can be said on this topic.  For the time being, though, suffice it to say that—shortcomings of the mental health system, as hyper-represented in a culture of celebrity fixation aside—these are real people who have real (and treatable) struggles with mental illness. 
    Ironically enough, for pop culture icons to deal with these struggles in the public eye may actually serve to help normalize the very common and yet still highly stigmatized presence of mental illness in society today…