Beyonce, BTS, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles. These celebrities are all known for their talent, and while appreciation isn’t bad, how far is too far? 

Celebrity worship is not uncommon amongst teenagers, but this type of ‘worship’ can be damaging to someone’s mental and psychological health. Personally, I think this idea of celebrity worship has to stop, because idolizing a person has no benefit at all to an individual.

Even I find myself a victim of worshiping a celebrity (don’t bring Zayn Malik into this), but one must realize the effects of doing this, even if they’re not apparent at first.

According to Medical Daily, “Anxiety, depression, high stress levels, poor body image, isolation, and obsessive-compulsive behaviors: All of these have been linked to celebrity worship syndrome because the patient’s energy is focused entirely on someone who may not even know who they are.”

The fact that celebrity obsession has gone so far as to cause a mental illness speaks volumes in itself. People find comfort and confidence in these strangers who seem so familiar to them. People are actively combining their self worth with the emotions this celebrity might cause them to experience.

What these worshippers don’t realize is that focusing their entire life on a celebrity (who doesn’t even know they exist) is detrimental to their mental health and will only end up hurting them in the end. 

Another issue is the normalizing of habits like obsession. Sometimes, people will confide in their friends, obsessing over this celebrity and their friends will not see it as destructive at all.

Many, especially teens, find comfort in talking about these celebrities if their peer or the person they are talking to is validating what is being said or if the person has no problem with what they are saying. 

A lot of people also don’t know how obsessing over celebrities can be linked to their self esteem. According to PepperDine, the average person will spend more than five years of their life on social media, which is almost two hours a day. 

It’s not hard to constantly find yourself looking at a celebrity’s Instagram posts. And the more you obsess over it, the more you start to intertwine your reality with theirs. At some point, some might want to live this celebrity lifestyle, and start to become self conscious about their looks, the way they live or other things. 

In my life, I see my friends rave on and on about the new Tom Holland post. And while some comments can be agreed with, sometimes my peers can continue to talk about these celebrities like the celebrity is a relative, and this habit isn’t normal. 

Even on the internet, the best example of this is kpop groups and their fans on twitter. While having “bias” (favorite member of a group) is normal for any band, these kpop “stans” on twitter will go as far as leaking your address if you disagree with any points these K-pop stans make or if you show any negativity towards their favorite band. 

Celebrities aren’t worth compromising someone’s safety. This is the problem with worshiping celebrities seen in my peers and online is treating the celebrity like your own, which moves you further from those who you know ‘IRL’ (in real life)

While it might be hard to stop this addicting lifestyle, the first step to anything is recognizing that something like this isn’t normal. 

Another thing to recognize is that this celebrity’s reality isn’t yours, and that the ability to balance reality and appreciation is key to starting to live a better life for yourself. Because let’s be real, who doesn’t love a Beyoncé song?