Los Angeles, CA — As one of the industry’s most respected performers, Cherie DeVille was once again contacted by The Daily Beast to pen her thoughts in a new article. Released on March 7, DeVille focuses on often-overlooked issues impacting performers’ mental health in her piece “Porn Stars Are Having a Mental Health Crisis.”
“Porn doesn’t cause mental health disorders, but the stigma surrounding porn can exacerbate pre-existing conditions,” DeVille wrote.
In the article, DeVille discusses how COVID-19 has increased anxiety throughout society in general — and porn stars are no exception. This, coupled with the ongoing and pervasive stigma around the mental health of performers causes people to not speak out.
“If you suffer from anxiety, you might grow more anxious when your job can lead to family tension, judgment from friends, and difficulties with romantic partners. On top of this, when we do suffer, people presume our mental health problems stem from porn. It reinforces the stereotype that we’re all suicidal, abused addicts. So we shut up about our problems,” she continued in the piece.
DeVille believes it’s time for this to stop. She explains how she has dealt with her own anxiety, even before her choice to start performing, and encourages her fellow performers to speak out as well.
“People already presume I was abused as a child because I work in porn, even though I come from an average, upper-middle-class family. But my charade reinforces the stigma surrounding porn stars’ mental health. Today, I’ve decided to stop lying,” she wrote.
DeVille concluded that her anxiety would decrease if the stigma surrounding porn stars’ mental health in general ended. She wrote that, while in the short term, writing this specific article boosts her anxiety, she hopes that putting the discussion to there will — in the long term — help to slowly produce social change.
“I am so glad I was able to talk about mental health for The Daily Beast,” DeVille said. “Porn stars are always considered ‘damaged,’ and it’s time the world recognizes we are just like any other human. We need to start taking our mental health seriously and do what we can to stop the silence.”
This is the seventh article DeVille has written for the site.
https://twitter.com/CherieDeVille/status/1369462784417693697
