It never fails to reassure me: knowing that other people struggle with depression. When those people are well known, frequently in the public eye, it's even more astounding. Do you take comfort in knowing that even celebrities have to battle such a trying emotional illness?

It isn't that we expect celebrities to be immune to problems. But seeing successful people always at their best can give us the impression that only so-called regular people can have issues. The truth is, absolutely anyone can have emotional problems. Check out the list below. While a few names are recognizable as those who have spoken out against the stigma surrounding mental illness, other names just might surprise you.

Famous People Who Suffered From Depression
In no particular order.

• John Quincy Adams - a U.S. president


• Hans Christian Andersen - author


• Isaac Asimov - author


• Julian Assange - journalist


• Alec Baldwin - actor


• Charles Baudelaire - poet


• Halle Berry - actress


• Delta Burke - actress


• Barbara Bush - First Lady


• Boris Yeltsin - Russian president


• Virginia Woolf - author


• Tennessee Williams - playwright


• Wil Wheaton - actor


• Walt Whitman - poet


• Mark Twain - author


• Amy Tan - author


• Winona Ryder - actress


• Sylvia Plath - author


• Edgar Allen Poe - poet


• Isaac Newton - scientist


• Abraham Lincoln - U.S. president


• Heather Locklear - actress


• Hugh Laurie - actor


• Ernest Hemingway - author


• Audrey Hepburn - actress


• Paul Gauguin - artist


• Bob Dylan - musician


• Eminem - musician


• Emily Dickinson - author


• Edgar Degas - artist


• Ray Charles - musician


• Agatha Christie - author


• Georgia O'Keefe - artist


• William James - philosopher


• Sigmund Freud - psychoanalyst


• Franz Kafka - author


• David Letterman - comedian

Did you recognize any of those thirty-seven names? Many people on this list experienced extreme episodes of depression, requiring hospitalization or years of therapy.

Refer to this list often when you feel depressed. It helps to know that millions of people - including the intelligent, talented people mentioned in this article - are just like you.