If you had stopped me on the street last week and asked me to describe actress Kristen Bell I could’ve gone on and on. I’d start by saying she’s an adorable, bubbly blonde. That she’s the voice of Gossip Girl, the woman behind the hilarious sloth videos and always has a smile on her face. I’d say that she’s cute as a button, that she was likely popular in high school, a cheerleader, or maybe even the Prom Queen. No part of me, even as someone who struggles with anxiety and depression herself, would’ve ever thought to describe her as someone who shares some of the same struggles I face.
In a recent interview with "Off Camera", Kristen Bell admitted to struggling with anxiety and depression. The interviewer had the reaction many others likely did… he was shocked. It seems unexpected that someone so bubbly, so charismatic and fun, could struggle with something as dark as anxiety and depression, a disease often thought to affect only those walking around with grim personalities and frowns strewn across their faces.
“I mean I present this very cheery, bubbly person, but I also do a lot of work. I do a lot of introspective work, and I check in with myself when I need to exercise, and I, you know, got on a prescription when I was really young to help with my anxiety and depression, and I still take it today, and I have no shame in that.”
In my hometown, the local news journal features a couple of high school seniors each month. One month, they featured me. To get more information for the article they conduct an interview, then they call a teacher from your school to ask them about you. When the article was published and they sent me the link, I read that the selected teacher described me as happy… that I was the student who always entered class giggling and with a smile on my face. She didn’t describe me as a girl who occasionally went to the bathroom and called her mom to pick her up early because she struggled with crippling panic attacks. To her, I was just happy, and I loved that.
It is often misunderstood that a person doesn’t have to go through an earth-shattering, life-altering disaster to struggle with anxiety and depression. There doesn’t have to be an event or an experience that was the root or the cause. We don’t have to be someone who struggles socially, who doesn’t fit in, or feels like an outsider. We just might be the person with the biggest smile on our face. We might even be the bubbly blonde actress who seems to have everything going for her.
“If you do go on a prescription for that, understand that the world wants to shame you for that, but in the medical community you would never deny a diabetic his insulin, ever. But for some reason when someone needs a serotonin inhibitor they’re immediately crazy or something.”
People struggling with anxiety and depression don’t need to have an explanation or justification. We don’t need to have a frown on our face and a solemn attitude. We have an imbalance of serotonin, and we don’t need to be ashamed or defined by it.
Last week I would’ve described Kristen Bell as a bubbly blonde actress with a great sense of humor. Today I’d describe her as a woman shining a very necessary light on an often misunderstood topic… a woman I would love to grow up to emulate.
