Are You A Celebrity Worshipper?
Ashley, 17, has a girlfriend. Her name is Angie. She has a beautiful set of pouty lips and an enviable killer figure. She’s been doing many things – she’s a super hot detective, a lesbian model and a doting mother of several adopted kids. Even Ashley’s Facebook status line screams out “Angie’s my girl, Stay off her”. When he heard that Angie gave birth to her own child in the French Riviera, he tore the newspapers and bumped his screen across the wall. Well, of course you know that Ashley’s so-called girlfriend is the famous actress Angelina Jolie and not Angie, the girl-next-door. If you relate to Ashley, then you’re in just a wee bit trouble.
It would have been normal for Ashley to discuss Angelina with his friends or hang posters of her on his wall, but thinking about what she is going to have for breakfast next morning, is a bit too much. Psychologists describe this as CWS or Celebrity Worship Syndrome. Some grow out of it on the onset of adulthood, where as some live with it healthily all their lives. There’s a very thin line to find out if your celebrity worship is healthy or not. There is a range of feelings an obsessive celebrity worshipper would go through. If you find yourself completely immersed in the life of your loved celebrity and you’re unsure of your feelings and how to deal with them, read on.
Early stages
If you hear your friend saying, “I hope Angelina calls me one day to congratulate me on the website I made for her” or “I am extremely depressed today because Angie had a fight with her father.” This is an ‘intense-personal’ stage aspect of celebrity worship which just about borders on obsession. It’s one thing to stick out photographs of your favorite celebrity in your scrapbook and another to actually make plans to go to LA and stalk them. I was recently reminded of Ashley when I heard my friend talking about her daughter Susan, 15. Lately, she observed that Susan was just not going out to play in the evening with her friends. Her teachers began reporting that she was deliberately secluding herself from her friends and not participating in interactive activities. In terms of psychology, this obsessive behavior is termed as borderline-pathological. Why does Susan think this way? Why does she feel that a celebrity will come and rescue her from the miseries of her life?
Media’s impact
Researchers say that celebrity worship has occurred in the recent times with the onslaught of media focusing on the everyday life of celebrities. They track each and every day of stars, what they had for lunch, which dress they wore again in the week, why did they change the number plate of their car and so on. And the worst part is that all the Susans and Ashleys of the world track every single page of this invasion of privacy every day. It’s almost as if these tabloids and psychotropic drugs will aid you to ‘heal’ out your emotional pain. This problem is now worsened by the stars themselves coming on reality shows, Twitter, Facebook and other micro-blogging sites to talk to their fans first hand. The latest news from Susan’s mother was that her performance in school had gone from bad to worse since the last time we spoke. With celebrities coming on Twitter, she spends 5 hours on the site everyday and types with a sparkle in her eyes – as she was talking to the one she owed her life to.
