Celebrities have to be or do become crazy?

[Gerenuk]

I was wondering why one hears so many stories about addictions (alcohol, drugs,...) and extraordinary behaviour from celebrities? Are there any studies?

a) Do you have to be crazy to become a celebrity?
b) Do you become crazy when being famous?
c) Does their "status" make them greedy for more stimulation?
d) Are they actually just normal people, but the media exaggerates once they find a special case?

 

[Moonbear]

While this may involve some medical issues for some, I think a good deal of it is mostly just social environment and reaction to peer pressure along with a healthy dose of media exaggeration. I'm going to make a judgement call and move this to social sciences where the behavioral factors can be discussed. I don't know if anybody has specifically studied celebrity behavior, but there are likely plenty of studies on other social groups and peer pressure influence on "extraordinary" behavior.

 

[tree-lights]

I think that being a celebrity is NOT a cause of becoming some crazed loon, because:
a.) not all celebrities are crazed loons, and
b.) not all crazed loons are celebrities.

I think a lot of those crazy celebrities cannot cope with "stardom," or the "pressure" that lie therein, and so fall to the easiest things to abuse around them: drugs, sex, partying, et cetera.

But a lot of it IS media coverage. We eat up anything having to do with them, and so it becomes sensationalized... which of course does not help the celebrity involved.

Most celebs have to be normal, with a few falling to the pressures and succumbing to social ills. I think a few probably would have ended up as they did anyhow, with their stardom simply being a trigger for their behavior.

Of course, there is always the chance of loony celeb behavior being owed to the fact for a need of media attention and sensalization.

-- Sol

 

[Gerenuk]

I think a lot of those crazy celebrities cannot cope with "stardom," or the "pressure" that lie therein, and so fall to the easiest things to abuse around them: drugs, sex, partying, et cetera.

How can the pressure be described? I haven't been a celebrity yet and cannot image .
The first thing that I thought was that they have the pressure to be as normal is possible in order not to provoke attention to their private life?

Drugs,... are the easiest thing to achieve what? Distraction, pleasure,...? Why?

 

[Moonbear]

How can the pressure be described? I haven't been a celebrity yet and cannot image .
The first thing that I thought was that they have the pressure to be as normal is possible in order not to provoke attention to their private life?

The pressure I'd imagine being the toughest is having the media present constantly. It's hard to just live a normal life when you can't even throw on a pair of sweat pants and t-shirt to run to the corner store for a carton of milk at night so you have it for your morning coffee without some photographer following you around taking pictures and posting it in the morning paper with a headline questioning your motives...trying to sneak out incognito for a secret affair, or letting yourself go, or whatever. Everyone walks out somewhat unkempt from time to time to run a quick errand for some needed item, but they don't expect to have a picture of them looking their worst plastered on the front page of newspapers.

And, in a way, they're almost prisoners in their own homes. They can never just go for a quiet walk in the park or on the beach...there is always someone following, asking questions, snapping pictures, and the need for security guards to escort them everywhere. The only place they can have quiet is locked up in their own house. You or I could decide we're tired of sitting in the house and take a book and head to the local park to read instead. A celebrity can't. That HAS to take a toll on a person eventually.