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LeAnn Rimes on How Music Helps Her Mental Health


Music has always played such an important role in your life. How does it factor into your mental health?

LeAnn: Creating is the most joyous thing in my book. Creativity gives me a place to express my depth and complexity. I’ve learned that creative energy, left untapped, shows up in my body as anxiety and anger, and I have a lot of creativity that needs to move through me somehow on a daily basis. Music has been my go to outlet since I can remember. It has been the space where I feel I can be the fullest expression of myself. These days, along with music, I am exploring other ways to create with my voice. Everything from writing for my blog, “Soul Of EverLe,” to public speaking, acting, leading chanting and meditation, and candle making. My whole life is one big creation, at least that is the way I view it. Every moment can be art if we treat it as such.

Selena Gomez is another singer in the public eye who’s been open about her mental health. I know you covered her song “Lose You to Love Me.” Have the two of you ever connected on this topic?

LeAnn: I mean, the two of us are two of many who have experienced challenges with mental health in the music industry. One of the reasons why I covered “Lose You To Love Me” for the LovE Sessions is how painfully honest and raw the lyrics are. What beautiful art was made, out of a heart, being broken open. It takes dredging through a certain amount of darkness to create something that authentic and true. Thank God for art and courage.

You’re open about how important self-care is in your life. Do you have any self-care tips?

LeAnn: Find what brings you joy and make it non-negotiable. Do at least one thing that brings you joy every day. It can be as simple as a piece of dark chocolate, taking a walk in nature, taking the time to cook a meal or lighting candles throughout your house… which is my personal favorite and I create my own!

Any self-care products you swear by?

LeAnn: I carry Doterra Siberian Fir oil with me wherever I go. It helps me stay grounded and come back into my body. I also really love the Insight Timer app for on-the-go, guided meditations. I am a contributor and a teacher on the app too. I create and share meditation and chanting. It’s been a very cathartic way of using my voice to help others relax and heal.

What would you say are the most important things to you right now?

LeAnn: My husband [Eddie Cibrian], stepsons, our dog Fleetwood, my own spirit and bringing its authentic expression out into the world, my connection to the divine, growth, being a conduit for creation to flow through, music, wholeness, connection, space, rest, joy, nature, quiet.

Christopher Rosa is the staff entertainment writer at Glamour. Follow him on Instagram @chris.rosa92.





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Troian Bellisario Shares Mental Health Advice For Her Younger Self


Opening up about one’s experiences with mental health is far from an easy thing to do, especially when stigma is still very real. Many celebrities, however, have begun to break this barrier in years past, one of them being actor Troian Bellisario. The former Pretty Little Liars star has been vocal about her journey with mental health, sharing her experiences with anxiety and an eating disorder in order to help young fans who may be going through similar battles.

In a recent video, Troian opened up once again about what she has faced, joining the Child Mind Institute‘s #MyYoungerSelf campaign. In the clip, she gives useful advice to her younger self about how to do deal with and embrace her feelings, whether they be happy, sad, or painful. “It’s totally normal for you to feel like somedays you might be overwhelmingly sad, or some days you might be very angry,” she says in the clip. “Some days you might be really happy, and all of these [feelings] are real, and they’re legitimate, and they’re yours.

She adds: “Don’t hide them or push them away…. You’re an incredible person, you’re a sensitive person… You don’t have to take it out on yourself or hurt yourself in any way because you are loved; you are worthy of being loved.”

The #MyYoungerSelf campaign was created in order for actors, athletes, and others in the public eye to share hope with those who may be dealing with their own mental health journey. Others who have participated in the campaign are Isaac Mizrahi, Bo Burnham, and Alyson Stoner.

Troian has been very vocal about her eating disorder in the past. In 2017, while promoting her film Feed, she told Teen Vogue: “For somebody who’s experienced it, you know that when that voice speaks, you feel compelled to listen. You’re either trying to avoid its punishment, or avoid the pain that comes from not listening to it. For somebody who doesn’t experience an eating disorder, they have to understand why somebody would be motivated to follow its orders.” In an essay for Lenny Letter, she opened up further, explaining that that voice follows her every single day, even if her eating disorder itself has alleviated as she’s grown older and attained help.

Troian ends the video saying, “You will grow and you will experience different things and I’m really proud of you,” reminding us all that we are seen, worthy, and loved.

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If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, NEDA‘s toll-free, confidential helpline (800-931-2237) is here to help: Monday-Thursday from 9AM to 9PM EST and Friday 9AM to 5PM. NEDA’s helpline volunteers offer support and basic information, locate treatment options in your area, and can help you find answers to any questions you may have.



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How To Talk To Your Boss About Your Mental Health


How can you get that kind of support from your boss? Should you bring up your mental health condition at all? We asked the experts how to tackle these toughies, whether you need a long lunch for a weekly therapy appointment or a leave of absence for more intensive care.

1. Test the waters
What will my coworkers think? Will my boss judge me differently? Will it hurt my career? Those are all valid questions, says Theresa Nguyen, vice president of policy and programs at Mental Health America: “Even though everyone has rights to accommodations, the reality is that asking for them is scary.” You can check the company handbook or website for any official policies. If you feel comfortable with your direct supervisor, it’s ideal to speak with her first, says Tanisha Ranger, a Nevada-based psychologist who has helped many clients broach the topic of mental health with their employers. Start by testing the waters, asking general questions such as, “If I have a recurring doctor’s appointment during the work day, how do you want me to handle that?” Her response can be a good indicator of whether or not she’ll be open to giving you some flexibility. Once you’re ready to talk to your boss about your specific situation, schedule some time to speak privately.

2. Do your homework
Before you have a more private meeting, do some due diligence—it’s important to walk into your boss’s office as prepared as possible and offer a plan that you’ve discussed with your therapist, Ranger says, rather than just unloading your diagnosis and waiting for your boss to provide the solutions. It helps to provide a list of requested accommodations and explain how each will help you perform to your potential.

In other words, you want to present your boss with a solution, not a problem. So explain how your mental illness may affect your work and how specific accommodations will allow you to perform to the best of your ability. For example, if you deal with PTSD and sometimes struggle with concentration, detail how working from home where you can control your environment could help you stay on course.

3. Be open to their suggestions
Employees have a right to “reasonable accommodations” but it’s ultimately up to employers to determine what reasonable means. Your boss may not immediately agree to all your requests, so be open to working together to finding creative solutions that will work for both you and your employer.

If an accommodation is minor, such as taking a long lunch once a week for a therapy appointment, a brief conversation with your boss will often suffice. But for bigger accommodations that will more drastically change your schedule, be prepared to work with HR too.

4. Know when to involve HR
If you don’t have a good relationship with your supervisor or you’ve tested the waters and gotten the impression that she won’t be understanding, you can opt to go directly to human resources to discuss your situation.

This is often a more discreet option, since they can’t legally share the reason for your medical accommodations if you don’t want them to, says Jessica Methot, Ph.D., an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. “This information is confidential explicitly because supervisors cannot be given information that can be used to discriminate against employees,” she says. “In this case, you would be protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act.” This means that even if you need to take a leave of absence, your boss doesn’t need to know why—you can work with your doctor and your HR team to fill out the appropriate Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) paperwork. “All you need to tell your boss is that you have a medical condition and you’ve completed the FMLA paperwork with HR,” Ranger says.



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A Chronic Illness Is a Full-Time Job—And It's Messing With My Mental Health


With a chronic illness, even something as simple as going on a date has an added layer of complexity. I could usually make it through a couple of dinners without anyone noticing that I was checking my blood sugar (not just my phone) under the table, but if things got hot and heavy, there inevitably came the moment when I’d have to fess up and explain that I may have to stop mid-romp to check my blood sugar.

Bionic woman: My insulin infusion port, left, and continuous glucose monitor sensor and transmitter, right. In my pocket is my insulin pump.

Ashley Batz

When I was in my teens and 20s, I tried to pretend my diabetes was a peripheral part of my life—I wasn’t ready to own the fact that I had a permanent, chronic illness that could result in very real complications like kidney failure, eye disease, neuropathy, or heart disease if I didn’t maintain well-controlled blood sugars. Unless I was with close friends or family, I often hid my blood glucose testing and insulin delivery.

But downplaying it, of course, didn’t change the fact that I do have diabetes. What I couldn’t quite bring myself to admit until recently was that I felt an intense loneliness attached to my disease. I hated the idea that my condition could slow me down or spoil the fun. While other people my age were eating whatever they wanted and partying their faces off, I knew that for every drink I had or handful of fries I ate, it could mean I’d be on a blood sugar roller coaster for hours afterward.

Now that I’m in my 30s and actively planning for a future with my partner, I’ve been forced to look at the emotional toll my diabetes has taken on me—and I’ve realized I’m just beginning to understand another layer of my already complex disease.

The daily stress of maintaining healthy blood sugar levels might seem like a small thing to people who don’t experience it—even I tried to write it off as general “life” stuff for a long time, piling it alongside things all young adults deal with, like building a career, paying bills, and navigating relationships. But all the blood sugar math, and finger pricks, and stress over what’s on my plate, really add up. Going for a run, eating at restaurants, getting dressed, traveling, driving—heck, even having my period—all involve additional checklists to ensure my glucose is in control and I can be comfortable. Plus, managing diabetes is expensive. It’s a lot to keep track of.

Hands drawing insulin with a syringe.

Insulin injections or infusions will be a part of my daily life—forever.

Ashley Batz

I’ve been lucky so far to have not developed any serious physical complications, but it’s become clear in the past few years that a large part of my emotional turmoil—acute anxiety, worry about money and safety, fear of making mistakes—is, and always has been, directly related to my diabetes.

The research backs this up: having diabetes may add to your risk of depression, and can actually lead to a condition called diabetes distress, which is similar to depression in that it involves feeling out-of-control or powerless, but specifically related to diabetes. The irony is, it’s not always clear whether the diabetes fuels the depression or if it’s the other way around; high stress levels can elevate blood sugars, which can contribute to even more stress around keeping blood sugars in check. “When you’re asked to take on this extra work of managing your disease, burnout and having an emotional response is common,” says Dr. Polonsky. “It can be like a ball and chain, making it even harder to manage this disease successfully.”

That’s the thing about living with diabetes: No matter how “good” you are about checking your blood sugars and eating what you should to keep them in check, there are just some days—and sometimes long stretches—when you feel completely out of control. It’s easy to feel like a failure when you’re trying your best and it doesn’t pay off.

I recently realized that I can’t simultaneously improve my health and let fear run the show. Instead of downplaying the demands of my disease as I did in my teens and 20s, I’m now trying to examine and embrace them. That means asking questions and getting curious about the many ways in which my disease impacts my life and the lives of others. It means going back to therapy to specifically address the fear and anxiety I feel about my diabetes. And I’m trying to forgive myself for judging my worth based on the numbers I see on my glucose monitor.



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Grammys 2019: Lady Gaga's Acceptance Speech Addresses Mental Health


Lady Gaga took home took home the award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Shallow” from A Star Is Born at the 2019 Grammys on Sunday night (February 10), and she used her speech as an opportunity to talk about mental health and the importance of reaching out for help.

“I’m so proud to be a part of a movie that addresses mental health issues,” Gaga said. “They’re so important. And a lot of artists deal with that, and we’ve got to take care of each other. So if you see somebody that’s hurting don’t look away. And if you’re hurting, even though it might be hard, try to find that bravery within yourself to dive deep and go tell somebody and take them up in your head with you.”

Watch Lady Gaga‘s speech for yourself, below:

Fans took to Twitter to applaud Gaga for her candor:

Gaga has been quite open about her struggles with mental health. “One in four of us will have to deal with a mental health condition at some point in our lives, and if we’re not directly affected, someone we care for is likely to be,” Gaga and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, wrote in an essay for The Guardian back in October 2018 . “Yet despite the universality of the issue, we struggle to talk about it openly or to offer adequate care or resources. Within families and communities, we often remain silenced by a shame that tells us that those with mental illness are somehow less worthy or at fault for their own suffering.”

Gaga’s already won three Grammys this evening, two for “Shallow” from A Star Is Born and one for “Joanne (Where Do You Think You’re Goin’?).” “I’m not gonna be able to wear any makeup tonight,” she wrote in an emotional tweet celebrating her wins. A star really is born.



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Kate Middleton's Brother James Wrote a Powerful Essay About Mental Health


For years, the rising generation of the royal family—specifically Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, Prince William, and Prince Harry—has worked through their Heads Together foundation to change the conversation around mental illness and combat stigma around it, especially within the United Kingdom. Prince Harry, in particular, has been especially vocal about his own struggles, opening up about being “close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions.” Now, Kate’s brother is contributing to the conversation: In a new op-ed for the Daily Mail, James Middleton—who has historically remained quiet on all matters concerning his family—openly applauds his royal sister and brothers-in-law for their work as he opened up for the first time about his own years-long battle with anxiety and depression.

In the essay, Kate’s younger brother describes the challenges of living with severe dyslexia and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and how that morphed into an exhausting struggle with anxiety and depression later in life: “Each night sleep eluded me,” he writes. “During the day I’d drag myself up and go to work, then just stare with glazed eyes at my computer screen, willing the hours to tick by so I could drive home again. Debilitating inertia gripped me. I couldn’t respond to the simplest message so I didn’t open my emails. I couldn’t communicate, even with those I loved best: my family and close friends.”

Middleton goes on to acknowledge that although he’s privileged, that doesn’t make him “immune” to issues with mental health. “I know I’m richly blessed and live a privileged life. But it did not make me immune to depression,” he says. “It is tricky to describe the condition. It is not merely sadness. It is an illness, a cancer of the mind.”

According to the World Health Organization, depression is an extremely common mental health disorder affecting more than 300 million people of all ages worldwide. But despite its wide reach, depression—as with many other mental health conditions—is often culturally stigmatized. In the UK, open discussions around depression and other mental health issues are still largely more taboo than not—for men in particular—making Middleton’s essay especially important. “For many men, opening up about their feelings is the biggest social taboo,” wrote Chris Hemmings in 2016 for the Independent, a British newspaper. Instead, he writes, “[we] bury our heads in the sand—or bottle, to be more accurate, as alcoholism rates for men in the UK are three times that of women.” A report from the UK’s Mental Health Foundation places suicide—which, the report reads is “associated with depressive disorders across the globe”—as the leading cause of death in the UK among people 20 to 34 years old, with more than three times as many men as women dying as a result of suicide.

Despite his sister’s advocacy and the fact that the Middleton family had become “desperately worried” about his well-being, James writes that he found it difficult to open up to them at first, explaining that often with depression, “those who are closest to you are the hardest to speak to.” Ultimately, it was the royals’ years-long advocacy for openness around mental health that helped James come forward with his own story.

“I feel compelled to talk about it openly because this is precisely what my brother-in-law Prince William, my sister Catherine and Prince Harry are advocating through their mental health charity Heads Together,” he says.

“They believe we can only tackle the stigma associated with mental illness if we have the courage to change the national conversation, to expel its negative associations,” he writes. “So it wouldn’t be honest to suppress my story. I want to speak out, and they are my motivation for doing so.”

Ultimately, Middleton hopes that by opening up about his struggle with anxiety and depression, he’ll encourage others to do the same. Props to him for speaking out—and continuing to unravel the stigma.

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, visit Mental Health America or the Anxiety and Depression Association of America for access to resources, help, and support.

Related Content:

Prince Harry Says He Was ‘Close to a Complete Breakdown’ in Years Following Princess Diana’s Death

Meghan Trainor Opens Up About Her Battle With Depression and Anxiety

Allison Miller Hopes A Million Little Things Will Inspire People to Talk More Openly About Therapy



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