Most celebs are very private about their attitude to disorders. And knowing the shamelessly pushy nature of paparazzi justifies it. Who would want their painful and stressful mental issues to become fodder for smack pills? None I suppose. And there are some celebrities who have made their struggles public to raise awareness of certain mental disorders. They have worked to help charities dealing with the same disorder that has been plaguing them.

• Amanda Bynes

Amanda Bynes, who was one of the prominent children’s stars in the late 1990s and early 2000s, suffers from not just one, but two mental illnesses—bipolar and schizophrenic disorders. Her mental health issues first became apparent on July 22, 2013, when Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested her outside a stranger’s home after she started a small fire in the home’s driveway. She was hospitalized as part of a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation. Subsequently, her affairs, including medical care and her finances, were placed in the care of her mother. After receiving adequate treatment for her problems in December 2013, she was released from her mother’s care.

Her mental health issues surfaced again in 2014 when she was accused of shoplifting from late October to November, scratching a woman at the nightclub and was allegedly kicked out at John F. Kennedy Airport . She also took the help of Twitter to rail against her parents. From now on she should feel much better and happier.

• Brooke Shields

After the birth of her daughter, Rowan Francis, named after her late father, Brooke Shields endured a crippling bout of postpartum depression. In postpartum depression, the person experiences severe depression and suicidal feelings, and is unable to care for or feel any affection for their baby. In an interview about her mental health struggles, Shields revealed that instead of taking care of her beautiful daughter, she would stare out the window of her Manhattan apartment and consider ending it all by falling four stories down. She couldn’t even look at the baby and every time she approached her her knees got weak and she broke down seeing it as the worst mistake of her life.

After consulting a doctor and having an acceptance problem, she was able to overcome her mental demons. Since then, she has spoken publicly about the dangers of the disease and has worked to raise awareness.

• Margot Kidder

Margot Kidder, who became famous for her portrayal of Lois Lane, the love interest of Superman Christopher Reeve in four film series, was struggling with severe bipolar illness in April 1996. She began chain smoking, drinking coffee, and staying up 24 hours a day, which led to her deluding herself. She disappeared for four days and lived on the streets like a homeless person. She was found in the backyard of a home by Los Angeles police in a filthy, terrified, and paranoid state. She was then committed to a psychiatric hospital. Kidder is said to have struggled with bipolar disorder since she was a teenager when she tried to commit suicide.

Kidder has since overcome her mental disorders with the help of natural and herbal treatments, including orthomolecular medicine. She is a staunch advocate of using natural medicine to treat mental disorders.

• Britney Spears

Britney Spears suffered a shocking and very shocking and she locked herself in a room with her child in her Los Angeles home and simply refused to hand her son over to his ex-husband Kevin Federline. Kevin called the police to intervene. She found Britney under the influence of an unknown drug. She was then taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for a mental exam. A day later, the court suspended her visitation rights and gave Federline sole custody of their children. About three weeks later, she was admitted to the psychiatric unit at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and placed on involuntary psychiatric custody.

During this troubled time, she shaved her head and was seen driving around like a mad woman. She would show up with dirty clothes, would sit and cry on sidewalks. She is said to have suffered from bipolar illness.

• Paula Dean

Long before becoming one of the most celebrated chefs and opening her chain of restaurants, Paula Deen struggled with severe bouts of agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by fear of situations where the sufferer considers certain things to be dangerous and is extremely uncomfortable with the elements. Her first panic attacks and bouts of agoraphobia were triggered by the deaths of her parents and the failure of her early marriage to her high school sweetheart. She struggled with her anxiety issues throughout her 20s where she was unable to leave her house for fear. The only place she would feel safe was near her stove. She revealed in an interview that during these anxiety attacks her arms would go numb and she would feel

However, she has now overcome her mental illness with spectacular success. She has sold over 8 million copies of her cookbooks, has appeared on her own television shows, and even launched her line of desserts to be sold at Walmart.

• Sinead O’Connor

Sinead O’Connor is one of the most controversial and crucial figures in the music industry. She has shaved her head in protest at women’s traditional views, repeatedly taken a stand against organized religion, which has torn up the pope’s image and publicized clashes with other musicians. Connor, who had a “barbaric childhood”, found the sudden fame and social shame difficult to deal with. Her depression spiraled out of control when she attempted suicide on her 33rd birthday on December 8, 1999. As she would later admit in the interview, she would see trees and the first thought that came to her mind was to hang herself.

She was misdiagnosed as having bipolar disease by the doctors. However, after taking extensive medication for her problem and suffering severe side effects without finding a solution to her problems, it turned out that she wasn’t bipolar after all. Since then, she has undergone extensive therapy to deal with her problems.

• Drew Carey

Drew Carey, with his $750,000 per episode fee on the final season of The Drew Carey Show, was one of the highest-earning television personalities. With a net worth of $165 million, he is one of the richest television hosts of all time. His success seems all the more impressive as he has struggled with the crippling problem of depression. In his autobiography, Dirty Jokes and Beer: Tales of the Unrefined, he wrote that a rough childhood that included sexual molestation by an unknown party and the early death of his father were detrimental to his mental health. So much so, in fact, that he attempted suicide twice with sleeping pills when he was a teenager and when he was in his 20s.

He overcame depression by accepting it. He learned to believe in himself, set goals in his life and read almost every self-help book.

• Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson’s public demeanor over the years has hinted at what he finally accepted himself in 2002. He has a history of well-documented public outbursts and rants. As of July 28, 2006, he was on every front page of the leading tabloids. Not only was he guilty of speeding under the influence of alcohol and having an open alcohol container in the vehicle, but he also launched an explosively charged and anti-Semitic tirade against the arresting officer. Then, in January 2010, he was the subject of the domestic violence investigation opened by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. In July of the same year, alleged recordings of Gibson’s abuse were published on the Internet.

During his manic-depressive disorder, Gibson was often found guilty of racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism.

• Elton John

Like many superstars, Elton John suffered from rampant alcohol and cocaine addiction. The fame that comes with being one of the best-selling artists and the isolation of being on music’s biggest stage drove John even deeper into addiction. Not even being able to talk to anyone without the influence of cocaine, he felt angry, irritated and complained about everything. Things soon peaked, and the singer, who was at the height of his fame, felt frightened and repelled by his state. After confronting his lover, he entered rehab in 1990 to fight addiction and bulimia. Bulimia is a psychiatric disorder in which the sufferer eats a large amount of food in a short period of time,

• Jean-Claude Van Damme

Jean-Claude Van Damme is one of the greatest action heroes. And his extreme bipolar condition was one of the reasons for his stunning physique and excellence in the martial arts. The Belgium star would feel down and depressed if he didn’t train for a few days. During these sudden depressions nothing could make him unhappy. And it was the depression and stress of the hectic schedule that drove him to an extreme cocaine addiction, during which he used $10,000 worth of cocaine in a week. By mid-1997, Van Damme was on the verge of suicide and, ironically, it was the turning point for the Street Fighter star. Shortly thereafter he was diagnosed with rapid cycling bi-polar disorder and given sodium valproate which ultimately helped him