"Mental health problems reported by performers included post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, bipolar affective disorder, and suicide. Five female performers described their own mental illness, and eight additional performers and key informants noted that mental illness was highly prevalent among female performers. A female performer felt that the mental health risk resulted from her time in the industry stating, “They try and break you and get you to the point where you just don’t care and you’ll just do whatever…I wasn’t a depressed person before I got into the industry. Now I’m considered bipolar.” While some performers developed mental health issues for the first time while in the industry, others entered the industry with mental health issues that may have been further exacerbated while performing. One female described her mental problems in the following way: “When I was new in the business and I realized that my life had changed so quickly in such a short period of time, I had an emotional breakdown. And I probably would have never had that breakdown if I never got into the adult business.” Respondents noted that mental health issues were more severe in women than in men. A current male performer said, “I would say that all of the women that come to porn are definitely broken…they’re coming from an abusive household, they were molested by an uncle, whatever it is.” One male performer stated, “Ninety-nine percent of porn girls are screwed up in the head because (what they’re doing is) not normal.” Mental health issues were not limited to females. One performer described a male performer who committed suicide: “He was lonely. Guys in this business who perform all the time, you can’t have a regular girlfriend. He was doing drugs, money was tight, he was going nowhere in life, killed himself.” No male performer described any personal mental illness."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2629520/
