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Kendra Wilkinson says severe depression nearly killed her: 'I went into psychosis'

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Kendra Wilkinson says severe depression nearly killed her: 'I went into psychosis'

Kendra Wilkinson says she suffered from depression so severe that she was hospitalized multiple times and nearly gave up.

The “Girls Next Door” alum said what initially appeared to be a panic attack was a symptom of a worsening mental health crisis.

“I was in a state of panic. I didn’t know what was going on in my head and my body or why I was crying. I had hit rock bottom,” she told People in a profile published Tuesday.

“I was dying of depression,” an emotional Wilkinson told the outlet. “I was hitting the end of my life, and I went into psychosis. I felt like I wasn’t strong enough to live anymore.”

It’s been two decades since Wilkinson moved into the infamous Playboy Mansion, the Holmby Hills home once notorious for its lavish parties, orgies and drug abuse. She was a teenager at the time, and the adult Wilkinson has had to grapple with the trauma and shame she felt surrounding her experience. She said that she struggles looking back on those years and that she’s had to face her “demons,” adding that “Playboy really messed my whole life up.”

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After Wilkinson, 38, suffered a panic attack that landed her in an emergency room in September, she returned to the hospital a week later and was prescribed Abilify, a medication commonly used to treat major depressive disorder and other mental health conditions. She then began attending therapy three times a week at UCLA, where she addressed both her painful divorce from former NFL wide receiver Hank Baskett, 41, and her complex trauma stemming from her time at the mansion.

Wilkinson and Baskett’s relationship was chronicled on an E! spin-off series, “Kendra,” in 2009 following her departure from the mansion and then later in “Kendra on Top” on WEtv. In 2014, allegations that Baskett was involved in a sex scandal with a transgender model boosted “Kendra on Top” ratings, with audiences seemingly eager to catch a glimpse of Wilkinson’s marriage unraveling.

Marc Juris, president and general manager of WEtv, told The Times in 2014 that cameras were rolling as the scandal played out in real time. “We were able to catch it pretty much with the emotional rawness as events unfold. Everyone is looking for the truth. And the search for truth is really compelling.” Juris said that Wilkinson agreed to share the ordeal with viewers.

“It was the lowest place I’ve ever been in my life. I felt like I had no future. I couldn’t see in front of my depression,” Wilkinson said. “I was giving up, and I couldn’t find the light. I had no hope.”

Wilkinson added that accepting medication was “the hardest thing to do” because it meant that she had to accept that she had a mental illness, which she was reluctant to do.

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In May, the former playboy model spoke with “Entertainment Tonight” about her reality series “Kendra Sells Hollywood,” which focused on Wilkinson’s career in real estate and which ran for two seasons but has not been renewed for a third.

Wilkinson was emotional in the interview, discussing the career transition while navigating life as a single mother and admitting that she often felt alone. “I love being a single mom. I love real estate. But sometimes it just gets to be a lot. A lot of pressure because you know, I’m not a perfect person. I have a past,” she told ET.

The reality star said that she created a life after Playboy and that real estate had saved her. “The devil was taking me down,” she said. “I had nothing left.”

Wilkinson is still working through her issues but says she’s committed to giving herself grace, and she’s proud of herself for seeking treatment.

“I want to let myself be,” she told People. “Depression is something that doesn’t just go away. … What therapy did was that it built this tool system for me. So now … I have the strength and the foundation I need to overcome my depression.”

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Reality star Matt Brown of ‘Alaskan Bush People’ is found dead, family confirms

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Reality star Matt Brown of ‘Alaskan Bush People’ is found dead, family confirms

Matt Brown, who starred with his family in the Discovery reality television show “Alaskan Bush People,” was found dead in the Okanogan River in Washington state, law enforcement officials said Sunday.

Brown’s body was discovered Saturday by a group of private citizens who were conducting a search, the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Brown’s brother, Bear Brown, said in a video posted Saturday on social media that fellow brother Noah had been with the search team, helped pull the body out of the river and identified him.

The official cause and manner of death is still to be determined by the coroner, the sheriff’s office said. But the Brown family believes Matt Brown died by suicide, Bear Brown said in the video.

Witnesses said they saw Matt Brown in or near the river and that he “took his own life,” Bear Brown said on social media.

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“I would have never suspected he would hurt himself, honestly,” Bear Brown said in the emotional video. “He struggled for a long time.”

Bear Brown said his brother had battled with alcohol and drugs and that Matt Brown told him in their last conversation that he had “fallen off the wagon.”

The Brown family and their life in the Alaskan wilderness were the subject of the reality TV show “Alaskan Bush People,” which ran on the Discovery Channel from 2014 to 2022.

Suicide prevention and crisis counseling resources

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, seek help from a professional or call 988. The nationwide three-digit mental health crisis hotline will connect callers with trained mental health counselors. Or text “HOME” to 741741 in the U.S. and Canada to reach the Crisis Text Line.

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Film Review: “Pressure” – MediaMikes

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Film Review: “Pressure” – MediaMikes

 

  • PRESSURE
  • Starring:  Brendan Fraser, Andrew Scott and Kerry Condon
  • Directed by:  Anthony Maras
  • Rated:  R
  • Running time:  1 hr 40 mins
  • Focus Features

 

Our score:  3.5 out of 5

 

On the most recent episode of our “Back in the Day” podcast the crew and I took a look at some of the greatest war movies ever made.  In doing my research I learned that there have been more then 5,000 feature films dealing with World War II alone.  5,000!!  Some of them are regarded as some of the best films ever made (The Best Years of Our Lives, Patton, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) while others I’d never seen.  As Memorial Day rolls along this year we are treated to another one:  Pressure.

 

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The film opens on the aftermath of what can only be called a horrible tragedy.  Overlooking the carnage, General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Fraser) can only curse.

Jump ahead six months where we meet British meteorologist James Stagg (Scott).  Awaiting the birth of his child, he is summoned to meet with Eisenhower and his staff to forecast the weather conditions that will be taking place during an operation they are calling “D-Day.”  Stagg continually butts heads with Colonel Krick (Chris Messina), whose method of predicting future weather from past events is not a practice Stagg embraces.  The two continually clash, much to the chagrin of an increasingly agitated Eisenhower.  Doing her best to keep the peace is Lieutenant Kay Summersby (Condon), Eisenhower’s aide and buffer.  It’s not an easy job.

 

Well presented with an outstanding attention to detail, Pressure could be looked at as the prequel to Saving Private Ryan, which opens with the invasion of Normandy, while this film looks at the events leading up to that day.  The cast is strong, with Fraser at his best when going head to head with British General Bernard Montgomery (Damian Lewis), whose “gung – ho” attitude robs Ike the wrong way.  It doesn’t help that “Monty” keeps referencing that, unlike others, he has battlefield experience.  He also throws “Exercise Tiger,” easily Eisenhower’s worse military chapter, out when it suits him.  (NOTE:  For those unaware, Exercise Tiger was basically a practice run for D-Day, with young soldiers taking place in a military exercise.  However, due to poor communications, live ammunition was used and nearly 1,000 soldiers and seamen were killed.)

 

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The film has it’s dramatic moments but it’s also anti-climactic because, while they continually stress that the invasion will take place on June 5th, anyone with any knowledge of history knows D-Day was June 6th.  So when Ike asks if everything is good for June 5th, you want to shake your head and tell him “no, sir.”

 

That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the film.  I did.  When I was born, Eisenhower was president – JFK would be elected two months later.  And it was a genuine treat to be sitting in the theatre with some of Eisenhower’s great grandchildren.  It lent a nice historical aspect to the screening.

 

On a scale of zero fo five, Pressure receives ★  ½

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Olivia Rodrigo’s babydoll dress is for the punks, not the freaks who ‘normalize pedophilia’

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Olivia Rodrigo’s babydoll dress is for the punks, not the freaks who ‘normalize pedophilia’

Some are calling the controversy over Olivia Rodrigo’s recent outfit choices babydoll-dress-gate, Olivia Rodrigo calls it “weird.”

The dress debacle kicked up in early May when Rodrigo released the music video for “Drop Dead,” in which she runs through the Palace of Versailles wearing a pink-and-blue ruffled babydoll set while singing about the intensity of a crush. Then on May 8, she wore a cottage-core pink-and-white floral babydoll dress with knee-high Dr. Martens during a live performance in Barcelona.

Rodrigo was drawing from subversive feminist and punk fashion of yore, but internet critics were quick to slam the “deja vu” singer, saying the ensemble was sexualizing child-like imagery. In an hour-and-a-half interview with the New York Times Popcast that dropped on Thursday, Rodrigo staunchly defended the dress and called the criticism disturbing.

“I have worn outfits that are maybe revealing on stage, like I’ve been on stage in a sparkly bra and little shorts — which is my right — that’s fun,” she said. “I felt cool and comfortable in that, and that wasn’t inappropriate, but me fully covered up in a dress that people deemed to be, like, childlike was inappropriate, and I think it shows how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture.”

Rodrigo further decried the criticism as rhetoric that girls are fed from a young age, “which is ‘don’t wear that, because then a man is going to sexualize your body, and it’s your fault’ — it’s so weird.”

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Rodrigo said she didn’t think she looked “sexy” in the babydoll dress; she was going for a cool look à la Kathleen Hannah or like Courtney Love, musicians whom the pop star said are her heroes. Love appeared to defend Rodrigo on social media by resharing posts defending the singer-songwriter in since-expired Instagram stories.

“I just think if we start dressing in a way that’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t want some f— freak to think that I am sexy like a baby’ or some crazy thing like that, I think it’s losing the plot a little bit,” she said. “I’m very protective of younger women and girls, and I don’t ever want them to be fed that rhetoric. You shouldn’t be responsible for some guy sexualizing you in a way that was never your intention.”

Rodrigo’s third studio album, “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,” which features hit singles “Drop Dead” and “The Cure,” will be released June 12.

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