It’s admirable when celebrities talk about their struggles with emotional, physical, and mental illnesses. They’re problems that make most people feel completely isolated and judged, and talking about them lets the rest of us know that everyone has issues, and there’s no reason to be ashamed. I always appreciate people that are honest about their imperfections instead of acting lofty.

“House” actor Hugh Laurie made some headlines (yeah I can’t believe this made headlines either, but whatever) on Thursday when he jetted from the set of “House” to go home to England, saying he had to deal with some family issues. Apparently Laurie has been battling depression for years, and misses his family. It also sounds like he deals with some anxiety issues as well.

British actor Hugh Laurie returned to work Monday after taking a sudden trip home to his native England for undisclosed family issues. On October 25, Laurie, 48, told producers he had to leave the L.A. set, promptly hopping on an afternoon flight to London, where his wife, Jo, and their three children, Charlie, Bill and Rebecca, reside. At the time, a show rep said that “Hugh had family obligations in England to attend to, but production is continuing in his absence.”

But in a revealing interview in Sunday’s Sydney Daily Telegraph, the Emmy-nominated star — who recently became one of the highest paid actors on TV, earning more than $300,000 an episode — admitted he is battling “mild depression” and continues to see a therapist periodically.

Not only does he miss his family (Laurie maintains a home in L.A., while they live in London), but he also said he was “drained” by the show’s overnight success and the 14-hour, five-days-a-week demands of the job. “I’m always thinking about the show,” he told the paper. “I’m too neurotic and too anal and too convinced that we’re going to fail to relax. Every show we do, every scene we shoot, is a disaster, I’m convinced of it. “I go home at the end of the day and my head is full of all the mistakes I’ve made. “I beat myself up about what I’ve stuffed up the day before,” he added. “I’m looking for things to go wrong. I’m not rejoicing or lying back and enjoying it.”

[From Us Weekly]

That makes me really sad to hear, but I think it’s great that Laurie is honest in saying that he has some issues to deal with. Pretty much everyone battles some sort of depression at one point in their life. Taking the stigma off it can only be a good thing. Hugh also admitted to having an affair with actress Audrey Cooke in 1997, and said it was related to his depression. It’s a little unclear from his phrasing if he means he had an affair because he was depressed, or he became depressed due to guilt over having the affair. Either way, his home life seems fairly stable now, and he clearly loves and misses his family. Hopefully he’ll do what he needs to be well.

“Hairspray” actress Brittany Snow has admitted to an extreme eating disorder, cutting, and depression in a recent interview with the website “Half of Us.” Snow talks about her struggle with weight, which began at the age of 12 when she started the “Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type” diet, after it was recommended by some of her “Guiding Light” adult costars. Wonderful influence. She got a lot of compliments on her weight loss, and the feeling of acceptance and encouragement became addictive. Eventually, she was down to 85 pounds and worried she still wasn’t thin enough.

“Brittany Snow’s descent into the dark world of eating disorders began when she landed the role of Susan Lemay on TV’s Guiding Light, the actress, now 21, tells MTVU.com. ‘I remember looking around at all these women who were on the soap opera who were working out and dieting,’ Snow says. Taking their cue, a 12-year-old Snow tried her first diet, called Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type. ‘I took it to the extreme,’ the Hairspray star admits, which included a two-month stint when she ‘lived on pineapple.’

“After losing 10 lbs. on the diet, Snow says she heard compliments and felt accepted from those around her. Soon it was a feeling she couldn’t get enough of. ‘It kind of progressed into this thing where I needed to always be dieting and losing weight and more weight,’ she says in the site’s interview series Half of Us, which addresses mental health issues and ways to get help. ‘It became my life and I didn’t have any friends and this was definitely my best friend and I held on to it really tight.’

“At 15, Snow was stepping onto the scale 10 to 15 times a day and weighed only 85 lbs. ‘I knew that was a really low number and I knew that my hair was falling out and I had really weird skin. My face looked really weird and I was getting this fuzz on my face and I was always cold – always to the point of uncontrollably shaking,’ she says. But ‘I was more scared that 85 lbs. wasn’t good enough. I wanted to be lower.”

[From People]

Brittany Snow is one of those sorta famous actresses that I never really thought much about, and she’s very pretty in a small, petite person kind of way. I never noticed just how tiny she was until I read this story, and really started looking. That would mean she was obviously struggling with anorexia through much, if not all, of her time on “American Dreams.” Snow says she finally reached the end of her rope when she started cutting herself.

“Rock bottom came when Snow began cutting herself. ‘I would look at the scars and what I had done to myself and that would convince me not to eat,’ she says. ‘I also was crying for attention and I also really wanted someone to see my scars and help me and give me a hug.’

“By 19, Snow was in rehab and things took a turn for the better. She stopped cutting and got help for her depression. ‘But the eating stuff was still really hard to deal with,’ she says. ‘It’s still a struggle.’

“Her advice to girls who are going though a similar situation is to take baby steps. ‘It’s very important to talk to anybody. Maybe the first step is just to talk to a friend about it,’ she says. ‘Probably they’ll relate in some way.’”

[From People]

That advice sounds very sensible. I imagine that for someone struggling with something as complex, private, and scary as anorexia, making a full-on confession might seem too overwhelming. The idea of baby steps makes sense. It’s amazing that Brittany could have had so many people around her who either didn’t notice or didn’t say anything.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Brittany Snow is shown in a white dress at fashion week on 9/5/07. She is at a party for her Vegas Magazine cover on 8/24/07 in the photos where she is wearing a pink dress. Thanks to PRPhotos.