You spent your whole paycheck on Kylie Jenner’s new “lip kit,” have your bedroom walls covered with posters of Ryan Gosling and rarely miss an episode of the “Real Housewives of Atlanta.” You might consider yourself a celebrity expert or, at the very least, a dedicated fan of the famous.
However, there’s a dark side to celebrity crushes you probably haven’t heard about: stalking, star-driven suicide, mental health problems and, yes, even murder.
How can celebrity crushes turn bad? In what ways could your celebrity obsession be causing problems in your own life? And how do you know if you’re at risk to joining the group of Americans diagnosed with “celebrity worship syndrome”? To get the low-down on how celebrity crushes can turn dark and deadly, ENTITY recently talked with Dr. Jim Houran, a psychologist expert on pop culture and celebrity worship, Dr. Lynn McCutcheon, social psychologist and founder of the North American Journal of Psychology, and Dr. Abby Aronowitz, clinical psychologist.
Keep reading to discover all the facts, stats and (scary) stories you should know about celebrity obsessions… you may never pick up an US magazine ever again.
So what is this new, trendy diagnosis – officially known as “celebrity worship syndrome” – that psychologists have been using since the early 2000s? In a nutshell, celebrity worship syndrome is a disorder in which people become obsessed with their favorite stars. Of course, not every “celebrity worshiper” falls into the same category. Dr. Lynn McCutcheon explains that most people who are diagnosed with celebrity worship syndrome fall within the “entertainment social stage.” At this level, people basically just “follow celebrities for their entertainment and social value.”
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Meanwhile, people in level two – the “intense-personal dimension” – are “obsessed with knowing details of their favorite celebrity,” Dr. McCutcheon explains. “You and I may not care one whit about your favorite celebrity’s preferences for food or entertainment, but these people do.”
Jokes aside, Celebrity Worship Syndrome, whilst is a seemingly wacky thing, is actually a real(ly messed up) phenomenon #fb
— Abdul-Kareem Hu (@abzhuofficial) January 16, 2017
The most frightening stage, however, is the “borderline pathological” – and, as the name suggests, “these people may have some serious problems.” These are the kind of people who have indicated in surveys that they will do something illegal if their favorite celebrity asked them to, and are more willing to condone celebrity stalking behaviors that other people would consider intrusive.
Some research (like that from Dr. Maltby) reports that only around 14 percent of people pay special attention to their favorite celebrities, around 10 percent display “intense interest in celebrities,” and only 1 percent “demonstrate obsessional tendencies.” Other researchers, like Dr. Jim Houran, have found that “about one–third of the general population is at a level of celebrity worship that would be considered potentially problematic” and more benign forms of celebrity worship occur in “the 75-80% range.”
Graphic Based on Dr. Maltby’s Research and Found at SlideShare
Basically? Not every celebrity crush spirals into a celebrity obsession. However, most people fall at least somewhere on the sliding chart!
So what’s the big deal? Maybe you like to splurge on a gossip magazine every once in a while, or you have an alert set up on your phone for any time cute pictures of Channing Tatum are posted. Could looking up to a celebrity be anything but harmless?
Unfortunately, the answer is a big Y-E-S. Dr. Houran admits that, at low levels, celebrity worship can be “healthy forms of behavior – such as promoting bonding among people…promoting stress reduction in people…and encouraging positive changes in society.”
However, once you start edging into level 2 and 3, your personal life – and mental health – takes a sharp nosedive. As Dr. Abby Aronowitz explains: “Social disengagement from others who do not share their obsession, can be isolating, The escape [from real life into celebrity obsessions] can prevent people from moving forward with their own lives, meeting responsibilities, and developing their own identity.”
Dreaming about what your life would be like if you married Chris Hemsworth can also ruin your chances of finding a dream guy of your own, with Dr. McCutcheon finding that people with higher degrees of celebrity worship have a harder time with intimate relationships. After all, how can you focus on making your spouse happy when all you can think about is if Zac Efron would prefer you in a red dress or a blue one?
In fact, if you’re wanting a clean bill of mental health, you may want to ditch People Magazine and find a new hobby. Although researchers haven’t isolated the cause yet, Dr. Houran reports that “higher levels of celebrity worship correlate with increased depression, anxiety, lower critical thinking abilities and poorer body image.”
You may think that scrolling down Jennifer Lawrence’s Instagram page is a great way to motivate you into hitting the gym. You might even think that going to sleep with a poster of Justin Timberlake above your bed might make for sweeter dreams. However, science seems to say that constantly thinking about celebrities is a guaranteed way to stop thinking about bettering yourself.
So, you’ve heard the good and the bad about celebrity crushing – but what about the ugly? When people reach level three and join the one percent of fans who become obsessed with their celebrity, there can be dangerous – even fatal – consequences.
In the 1980s, Andrea Evans was playing Tina Clayton in the soap opera, “One Life to Live” when a stalker repeatedly showed up on the set. He even cut his wrists outside the studio, claiming Evans was his next-of-kin. She eventually quit “One Life to Live” and didn’t appear on a soap again until 1999. Celebrity stalking wasn’t perhaps taken completely seriously, however, until the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989. At the age of 21, she was shot to death in her own Los Angeles home by “obsessed fan” Robert Bardo.
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After her death, stalking was made a crime, information on public access to street address information was restricted in California, and an anti-stalking squad in the LA police department was established. Yet, The Voice singer Christina Grimmie was killed by a fan who “thought they were getting married” back in June of 2016. Other stars like Jennifer Lopez, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift (because every girl will definitely say yes to a strange man showing up at your house and asking for your hand in marriage), Justin Bieber and the Jenner sisters (who both received death threats that eventually got the FBI involved in their protection plan) have also reportedly experienced their own scary stalkers.
If Christina Grimmie can die from a stalker, anything could happen to anyone, including Camila. That’s why we’re cautious #ProtectCamila
— niamh✨ (@poltergxist) July 16, 2016
Jennifer Lopez granted restraining order against ‘stalker who sent her flowers and drove to her home’
— Tommy Michel (@redigefaqet) January 6, 2017
Why can admiration for a celebrity turn so much…darker? For Dr. Houran, it’s easiest to understand extreme forms of celebrity worshippers as types of drug addicts. “Just like an addict developing a psychological or physical tolerance to a chemical substance, these celebrity worshippers appear to need to endorse [or] act out increasingly more intense or extreme behaviors in order to…continue to get a ‘high’ from celebrities,” Dr. Houran says.
Sometimes, though, the harm comes to the super-fan, not just the celebrity. According to Dr. Aronowitz, “Over-identification with a star can cause imitation, and copy-cat behavior of [the celebrity’s] alcohol or drug abuse, even suicide.” In fact, studies have shown that celebrity suicides often result in suicide-vulnerable fans doing the same thing, in a phenomena known as the “Werther effect.” Why? Some suggest that the plethora of media coverage a celebrity suicide receives causes people to think more about death. Others point to celebrities as role models: if they commit suicide, suicide becomes more “acceptable” in the eyes of their fans.
Either way, the statistics don’t lie. When Japanese pop singer Yukiko Okada committed suicide in 1986, suicide rates rose for a short time all over Japan. And after Robin Williams’ death in 2014, researchers saw a sharp hike in suicide-focused posts on Reddit.
Maybe your celebrity crush is entirely harmless…but the history books (and today’s popular celeb magazines) prove that the same can’t be said for everyone’s.
So what should you do if you find yourself Googling, “Jennifer Lawrence” more often than you check the weather?
You might want to try going on a media detox. Although historical studies may show that people are wired to “worship” something – whether a God, an actress, President or great athlete – Dr. Houran points out that “modern technology has fueled this innate propensity.” So, maybe stepping from those fan boards, your fave celebrity’s Instagram page and the daily (gossip) news is the best way to give yourself some mental distance.
READ MORE: 5 Reasons to Get Off Social Media
If you’re feeling extra motivated, you might even want to follow Dr. McCutcheon’s advice and “worship yourself.” While you should stop short of building yourself a shrine and wearing a golden crown 24/7, you could “sit down and think about what you can do to improve yourself.” Because who needs Beyonce when you can be your own, epic version of awesome?
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The truth is, celebrities can be as healthy parts of your life as you make them. If you look at Emma Watson and want to emulate her work for women’s rights, then that’s one heck of a role model. But, as creepy as it sounds, there’s sometimes a thin line between putting posters of movie stars on your bedroom wall and wanting to wear their skin as a coat.
Sure, you’ll miss seeing Ryan Reynolds adorable smile greet you before work every morning. But kicking ass at your job, meeting a soulmate who can actually make a dinner date and focusing on your own life, not someone else’s could be the ticket to writing your own script that can help you kick the celeb habit once and for all.
