Rosario Dawson, Mayim Bialik, Sarah Michelle Gellar Join Parade Media to Observe World Mental Health Day

NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Celebrity advocates including Rosario Dawson, Mayim Bialik and Sarah Michelle Gellar open up about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their mental health and share their coping strategies in a special video event to mark World Mental Health Day, Oct. 10.

The "Take a Mental Health Day" video event premieres Oct. 8 at 9 a.m. ET on Parade's YouTube channel and Parade.com.

It features new Parade Media/Cleveland Clinic research in which more than 6 in 10 Millennials (63%) and more than half of Gen Z adults (57%) agreed that celebrities and public figures who speak out about mental health issues help them personally, compared with 46% of average Americans.

Further, 63% of Millennials and 54% of Gen Z adults are likely to check on the mental and emotional wellbeing of their friends and family following a celebrity's statements on the issue (vs. 42% of average Americans).

"Celebrities who open up and show their vulnerability around this difficult topic go a long way in destigmatizing mental health challenges," says Lisa Delaney, SVP/Chief Content Officer, Parade Media. "They empower fans to have personal conversations in families and among friends—the first step in getting help and support."

Also, according to the survey, the pandemic has elevated mental health as a priority: 82% of Americans now believe mental health is as important as physical health, a 14% jump from 2018 Parade Media/Cleveland Clinic research.

In addition to Dawson, Gellar and newly named Jeopardy! host Bialik, former American Idol winner Jordin Sparks and The Good Place star Jameel Jamil share how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their mental health and the strategies they use to stay strong.

Find the video on Parade's YouTube channel  and Parade.com. Find full survey results here.

Lessons from the pandemic:

Mayim Bialik: "What I noticed about my mental health during the pandemic is that anything about me that was already struggling started struggling more. So, I've always had anxiety; my anxiety got worse. My sleep got disrupted. My stomach was getting upset. I was having trouble concentrating. I was bumping into things all the time. All those little tendencies I had to lean towards anxiety just got stronger."

Jameel Jamil: "The pandemic has … put a lot into perspective as to how short life is. And I think I intellectually always had a fairly good grasp on that because I've lived with chronic illness my whole life. But more so than ever, it's just reminded me that, wow, this [could] end tomorrow, that we have to we have to make sure that today was better, that we did more, that we did better, and that we felt better."

Jordin Sparks: "When everything flips on a switch and your whole world kind of changes, your schedule changes, it can be very easy to spiral."

Why it's important to prioritize mental health:

Rosario Dawson: "We get really lost in our projections of the future and we spiral when we concentrate too much on what's happened in the past. And we make it perpetuate in our present as if it's still happening. And we lose this moment—and suddenly we look up and years and decades have gone by because we've never been present."

Best daily mental health practices:

Dawson: "I love things like just taking a deep breath, holding it in for four seconds, and then pushing it out, holding that for four seconds—it just does things to the actual systems in your body. But it just brings you present. Just being alive in the present I think is just so critical for our mental and emotional health. We can't solve all the problems, we can't change things in the past, but right here, right now I'm alive and I'm ok. That's so important to remind ourselves. We got this."

Bialik: "One of the things I had to do was to start limiting the amount of news I was consuming. Reading every day about all the possible worst things that could be happening, and all of the numbers and all of the rates was actually just making me more anxious … I was killing a lot of time and trying to distract myself by scrolling through social media a lot … I was doing what we call compare and despair … I thought it was distracting me, but it was actually making me more anxious."

Sarah Michelle Gellar: "Put the words 'for now' at the end of every sentence. 'My kid won't sleep for now.' … like 'I'm not sleeping for now.' … Understanding that everything can be temporary .."

Sparks: "I remind myself to breathe --- it is something I've had to work on my entire life. I can tell when I'm not doing it and I'm not aware of it, because my anxiety starts to rise."

On sleep and mental health

Dawson: "I'm just not interested in being that person who's like, 'I'll sleep when I'm dead.' It's like, no, I need my sleep. Sleep is really one of those things that's a silver lining out of this whole quarantine that I've gotten that I've maximized as a really important part of your physical and emotional wellbeing.

On exercise and mental health

Jamil: "I've actually learned that regardless of your size or ability, moving your body every single day is priceless for your mental health."

Gellar: "Exercise for me has been really important, especially in the pandemic when I wasn't by nature as active as I normally would be. Working out has been a savior for me. Reading is … my one thing where I can really shut down and disappear into something."

On empathy and kindness

Gellar: "[Wearing a mask is] not just about protecting you. It's about protecting the community and being a good citizen. And what being a kind person looks like … that it's not just about me."

About Parade Media
Parade Media develops and distributes premium content across digital, mobile, video, and print platforms. Its brands include Parade, Relish & Spry Living. Based in Nashville, Tenn., and New York, the company also creates custom content for major brand clients and retailers. Visit us at parademediagroup.com.

Contact:
Parade Media: Lisa Delaney, [email protected]  

SOURCE Parade Media

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