Published December 31st 2015
Tonight, we close another year and start a new one. For many this is one grand finale of a wonderful joyful holiday season, but for others this time of year is the darkest.
The amount of people, who are battling depression, has been on the rise for many years. The pressures of every day life seem to be getting more and more straining on our mental health with conditions like burn outs and bore outs also on the lurk. For regular folk, but also for pop stars.
This year, many artists have made it clear that they need some time off from their work: Zayn Malik, followed by the rest of One Direction and Sam Smith are probably best known cases. But, to as far as we know, those are cases of people just needing a bit of space and fun, and everything will be fine for them.
Other artists have opened up this year about more serious mental health issues.
Selah Sue
A few weeks ago Selah Sue, suffering from depressions for many years, made the bold move to share on Facebook, that she is currently going through a low time.
Sinead O’ Connor
The day before, Sinead o’Connor tried to commit suicide and received treatment again, also for repeated depressions.
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga was rumored to have suffered from depressions for various years. This year she confirmed this and started talking about it. She’s started a foundation to help young teens with depressions.
Deadmau5
And it’s not just singers, who are battling with their moods. DJ Deadmau5 recently shut down all his social media accounts, because he was heavily lost in his depression.
The Year In Which Mental Health Became An Open Topic
It’s no surprise that The Guardian recently wrote about British pop stars, who all made mental health problems open to discuss this year, mainly due to their public break downs or speaking on the subject. In their article they make a link to creative minds and mental illnesses, like one needs the other in some way. In the UK, apparently, 60% of musicians are suffering from some form of mental health problems.
A study in The Netherlands showed that people who work at night are more prone to depression because of lack of daylight. And musicians work night shifts, so put themselves definitely at risk. I guess the only way to test if that could be it, is to find a group of musicians willing to try working during the day for a while to see if they feel better. I’m laughing out loud, while writing that line.
