Imagine a world where you turn on the television and do not see a story about Britney Spears shaving off her hair, all the celebrity gossip disappears. Once someone enters the world of fame, they change. They go from being photographed by their mom to being hunted down by the paparazzi. Childhood actors are affected the worse by fame. Miley Cyrus, protagonist of “Hannah Montana”, lived a double life and had fun. As she grew up, she posts pictures of her drinking and smoking on social media. A question that comes up is “Why are celebrities going crazy?” Fame makes people change mentally and turn to substance abuse because they put their lives at risk, disrespected by their fans, and become depressed.

To start off, baseball players are all desperate to be the best on their team. To be the best, they turn to steroids. Baseball players have been caught for substance abuse since the 1880’s. They use drugs to “perform better, heal faster or relax during a long and stressful season” (Chafets). Players believe that you have to be rich in America; they try to get better to be wealthier. Fame is getting to the baseball players heads because of the substance abuse. Therefore, baseball players become hopeless, so they take steroids. Additionally, Mickey Mantle was a player for the Yankees from 1951 to 1968. He was out for a while because he got a swollen bump on part of his body. It came from a needle also used by Max Jacobson, which got infected when he injected himself with steroids (Chafets). People come into a world where speed and agility is everything, they think that it is necessary to take drugs so that they could be the best possible. Thus, Mickey Mantle put his life at risk just so that he could have a better career. Other players such as Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, and Manny Ramirez came out positive for drug abuse (Chafets). Players from different periods of time turned to drugs, so it is not a recent situation. Hence, baseball players put themselves in danger to try and beat everyone. Clearly, from baseball players taking steroids they are getting sucked more and more into the world of fame.

As well as baseball players try to get better, celebrities try to ignore the rudeness around them. Everywhere in the world“...[celebrities are] suffering-suffering from fame” (O’Neil). They have a certain face on all the time because they need to make a good impression for their record company or sport teams. From all that stress, they turn to substance abuse to try and calm down. Therefore, celebrities turn to substance abuse to calm down. Christina Villarreal, psychologist in California said in the article  “Does Fame Drive You Nuts?” by Justin O’Neill that celebrities get intimidated almost and forget who they are. She said “Eventually, they start to lose track of who they really are, seeing themselves the way their fans imagine them, not as the people they were before everyone in America knew their name.” Becoming famous can make people change into someone that is completely different. Hence, celebrities get intimidated by the fans and change into a person that they are not. In the world, many celebrities are abused by their fans. Once they are spotted in public, fans go crazy. Kim Kardashian said ‘“[She’ll] be at a restaurant and someone will put their phone in front of [her] face and take a picture without saying hi”’ (O’Neil). Fans are disrespectful to their idols. Thus, celebrities change mentally due to disrespect. Therefore, celebrities change mentally and turn to substance abuse because many fans are discourteous to them and to calm down.

To further illustrate, celebrities do not just change because of the rudeness of fans, but they also change because they become depressed. Steve Taylor of Aerosmith said, “...when [one has] too much free time, [one’s] attention turns inward and [one is] forced to confront this discord, which creates feelings of boredom, discontent, anxiety and even depression.”  People need to have a set schedule, or one will feel empty. Celebrity's lives can be full of events at one point and nothing the next. Therefore, celebrities become depressed from their hectic schedule. For most parents their schedule is to go to work, come home after hours at work, then eat dinner. Celebrities lives are 100% different. They can wake up whenever they want and not have the day planned (Taylor). Celebrities have a lot of free time on their hands to do nothing. Hence, the feeling of loneliness occurs. Tests have been conducted to see if people are happier employed or unemployed, and employed people were much more happy. Also, there is smaller risk of suicide, alcoholism, drug addiction and mental problems for employed people (Taylor). Unemployed people that do not have a set schedule tend to be downhearted. Thus, celebrities have more of a chance of substance abuse and suicide. Clearly, fame leads to a bigger chance of depression and substance abuse since they have much free time, and they do not have a set schedule.

Some may say that many celebrities are not depressed, do not put their at risk, and are not disrespected. They may say that celebrities are living a sober life with a family. Celebrities do not show signs of having a mental illness from fame. They often whine of how busy they are (O’Neil). Celebrities do not go insane from fame, but they get tired from all the events. However, many celebrities have changed from before they were noticed. Justin O’Neill, a writer from Scholastic Scope magazine, said in the article, “Does Fame Drive You Nuts?”, fans and paparazzi will be irritating to the celebrity. Celebrities “...worry constantly about their public appearance. Eventually, they start to lose track of who they really are…” Celebrities lives are so chaotic that they start to forget what their interests are and what they used to do. It all starts to slip away from them. Steve Taylor, journalists and author, says in “The Perils of Fame and Fortune,” talks about how singers and actors go through rough paths with drugs and alcohol. He says that singers and actors are used to the high energy events, but when they get home they feel depressed. To get rid of that depression, they buy drugs and alcohol to replace that melancholy feeling. Evidently, fame does affect celebrities mentally because they they worry and have to continue to feel a high from the concerts that they go to.

As aforementioned, celebrities are affected mentally and turn to substances when in the world of fame. Fame can make people put their lives at risk so they could be the best. They are also disrespected by their fans which makes famous people get angry. Also, celebrities get depression because of the high energy events. If this does not get fixed, the amount of depression and mental illnesses will increase. Since mental illnesses are increasing that means that there will be a higher suicide rate. In other words, we want to see a world where the television is turned on and we do not see a story about Britney Spears shaving her hair.