I vividly remember the day the story broke that Britney Spears had shaved her head before attacking a paparazzo’s car with an umbrella – pictures of which were splashed across the front pages of every newspaper. It was 2007. Most of the headlines over Britney’s ‘meltdown’ sought to ridicule her.
It started a chain of events in which the singer was in and out of rehab before a 5150 order was placed and she was put under psychiatric care after losing custody of her two sons and divorcing Kevin Federline. As a result, her father was appointed co-conservator of her estate as she was deemed unfit to look after her own affairs. And yet, social commentators and comedians responded by making jokes about ‘pulling a Britney’– a by-phrase for ‘losing your sh*t’. No wonder, then, that the incident has been referred to as ‘a defining cultural moment’ in celebrity history.
In 2007, I was newly recovered from an eating disorder and, after leaving my job because my boss told me he was ‘paying me wages to spend on food to throw up’, was being advised by recruitment agents not to tell prospective employers about my mental- health history. When I confided in a friend she accused me of ‘attention seeking’ and when I wrote about my experience online I received a response saying I should get my disorder back because I looked so ‘porky’. It would be nice to think that we’ve changed our mindset in the last decade or so. It’s true there have been numerous awareness campaigns, celebrities speaking out and even royalty wading in to break down the stigmas around mental health.
Britney herself, now 37, clearly felt the ability to be open about her struggles, sharing a message on Instagram a few weeks ago, saying: ‘Fall in love with taking care of yourself. Mind. Body. Spirit’. And, for the most part, the pop star’s decision last week to spend time in a mental health facility has been reported in a much more responsible way. (Britney announced in January she was taking a hiatus from music to care for her father, who suffered a ruptured colon, and now reports say her distress over his illness led her to check into a psychiatric facility.)
Yet, research I conducted with Bauer, this magazine’s publisher, last year shows there is still a stigma around mental health – with over half of employees who have had to take time off work for a mental-health issue reporting that they told their boss it was for a different reason. In my opinion, several things need to happen if we’re going to make true progress. First, we need to burst the bubble around ‘having it all’ – money and fame don’t inoculate you from mental illness; in fact, they can exacerbate it. Second, we need to have the same response to mental ill health as physical – showing the same compassion. We also need to change our social structures to reflect this, which is why Grazia is campaigning to change workplace law on mental health (see wheresyourheadat.org).
We’re petitioning the Government to make it a legal requirement for most employers to have a dedicated mental health first-aider as well as one dedicated to physical issues – so the one in six of you who report having suffered from a mental health issue at work know who to turn to.
Natasha Devon’s book, ‘A Beginner’s Guide To Being Mental’ is out now
Sign our petition calling for better mental health provisions in the workplace at change.org