Do you know?
As compared to straights LGBT individuals are 3 times more likely to experience a mental health problem.
Ever wondered, why?
Change is the only constant. Well today, society is more acceptable to change. It accepts people regardless they are different. But the same situation was not there, twenty years ago. So, when Ellen DeGeneres who is a gay woman, who came out in 1997, she had to deal with many problems due to that. Not many people were open about their homosexuality back then, and digits were lesser in women. But, DeGeneres embraced a life in that. She has been a leader in the LGBTQ community, since then.
DeGeneres is an American comedian, television host, actress, writer, and producer known for her show named The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Love Letter. After her struggle due to her sexuality, she revealed that she suffered from depression during the time after she came out because everyone constantly made jokes at her expense.
In an interview, she said, “For a long time, there was a lot of fear that being gay was going to influence people’s opinions about me and so I didn’t ever have the confidence I should have had. Because whenever you carry shame around, you just can’t possibly be a confident person.” “Because there was so much talk about coming out . . . Even Elton John said, ‘Shut up already. We know you’re gay. Be funny.’ I had never met him and I thought, ‘What kind of support is that from a gay person?”
She added, “Everybody assumed I was just nonstop talking about it. It hurt my feelings. I was getting jokes made at my expense on every late-night show, people were making fun of me. I was really depressed. And because of that, and because my show was cancelled, I was looked at as a failure in this business. No one would touch me. I had no agent, no possibility of a job, I had nothing.”
She was forced to be a leader in the LGBT community, which she never intended. She was sucked into a relentless media cycle where she became the ‘butt of every joke’ and ostracized from Hollywood.
“I was looked at as the new leader, and I didn’t want to be a leader and I didn’t want to be political,” she said. “I just wanted to be free from a secret and that’s all I wanted. Some people thought, ‘You’re not gay enough and you’re not doing enough for our community and there are so many that have done more.’ I didn’t say I was your leader and I didn’t say I have done more … I just want to be a comedian and I just happen to be gay. I think I’m doing a lot just by being a physical presence of hopefully a representation, not of the entire gay community, but of someone at home going, ‘There’s someone that’s gay.’ It was really tough.” She added, “If you ever have experienced depression, you isolate yourself and don’t reach out for help. You don’t say, ‘I’m hurting, I need help’ – you kind of crawl further into that dark hole, so that’s where I was for a while.”
Regarding her recovery, she mentioned said that she fought back against it through meditation and being quiet. For a long time, there was fear in her that being gay was going to influence people’s opinions about her and so she didn’t have the confidence. Because whenever you carry shame around, you just can’t possibly be a confident person.
DeGeneres told, “I fought back against it through meditation and being quiet…. I started seeing a therapist and had to go on anti-depressants for the first time in my life . . . I slowly started to climb out of it. I can’t believe I came back from that point. I can’t believe where my life is now.”
Obama said about her, ‘It’s easy to forget now, when we’ve come so far, where now marriage is equal under the law, just how much courage was required for Ellen to come out on the most public of stages almost 20 years ago…She did pay a price. We don’t remember this. I didn’t remember this. She did. For a pretty long time – even in Hollywood.’
A new path may contain many hurdles. But life moves on. So embrace every challenge and fight every demon. But, in all this, take care of your mental health.
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