Brad Pitt had depression for years, and no one noticed or knew. He says this is because his particular case of depression was low-grade. But even that term is a slippery slope. No matter how famous you are, you shouldn’t grade your depression or weigh it next to others. That is solely a therapist’s job. Once we begin undermining our own conditions, that can become very dangerous. Luckily, Pitt seems to have a handle on it now.
In talking to GQ about his low-grade depression, the actor said:
“I always felt very alone in my life. Alone growing up as a kid, alone even out here [in Los Angeles], and it’s really not till recently that I have had a greater embrace of my friends and family. What’s that line, it was either Rilke or Einstein, believe it or not, but it was something about when you can walk with the paradox, when you carry real pain and real joy simultaneously, this is maturity, this is growth.”
He lamented:
“Out here in California,” he says, “there’s a lot of talk about ‘being your authentic self.’ It would plague me, what does ‘authentic’ mean? [For me] it was getting to a place of acknowledging those deep scars that we carry.”
So Brad Pitt had depression but continued to work through it and seems to have a much better understanding of his true self as a result of it. But again, naming your condition ‘low-grade’ depression is something we don’t suggest. Sadness is not a scale nor a contest for who has it worse. It’s safe to assume his oft stressful marriage to Angelina Jolie must have factored in too, but he skirts that discussion. Pitt is a class act like that.
So in closing, Brad Pitt definitely had depression, but the key word here is “had.”