Suicide Prevention Awareness Month — 9 Celebrities Who Courageously Spoke About Their Suicidal Ideation

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and there is no better time to have a conversation that far too many people are still afraid to start. Celebrities continue to share their own struggles with suicide thoughts and why their honesty matters. 

Mental health struggles do not discriminate. They do not care how much money is in your account, how many followers you have or how many stadiums have filled up to watch you perform. The celebrities who have chosen to speak openly about their own battles with suicidal ideation are doing something more important than any red carpet appearance or chart position could ever accomplish. They are telling the people watching them that they are not alone. And for some people, that message is the difference between staying and not staying.

As The Mighty documented in their comprehensive breakdown of celebrities who have shared their mental health journeys, the list of public figures who have been honest about suicidal thoughts is longer than many people realize. Every name on it represents a moment of profound vulnerability that required courage most of us cannot fully appreciate.

RELATED CONTENT: ‘RHOSLC’ Star Mary Cosby Confirms Son Robert Cosby Jr. ‘Has Been Called Home To The Lord’

BuzzFeed noted in its own coverage of celebrities speaking about mental health that public honesty from famous people creates a ripple effect in their communities that reaches people who would never seek out a hotline or a therapist on their own but who might reconsider their own silence when they see someone they admire choosing to speak out.

The stigma around suicidal ideation is particularly brutal because it layers shame onto pain that is already unbearable. When someone at the level of cultural visibility that these public figures occupy decides to remove the shame by speaking plainly about what they have experienced, it creates permission for everyone watching to do the same in their own lives. That is not a small thing. That is everything.

Here are some of the celebrities who have chosen honesty over image in regard to suicide, and in doing so, may have saved lives they will never know about.

The post Suicide Prevention Awareness Month — 9 Celebrities Who Courageously Spoke About Their Suicidal Ideation appeared first on MadameNoire.