Joshua Williams

Yeah, celebrity worship's an interesting thing right now in contemporary society.

So, you know, sometimes it might start off innocuous where you're just interested in, you know, for entertainment purposes and talking to other people, but gradually that could change to become more intense where you start having intrusive thoughts.

And then, you know, then it gets into kind of full blown, you're really almost addicted to engaging and following and trying to learn all you can about that celebrity where it actually impacts your daily life and functioning.

Yeah, so celebrity worship is kind of one of the specific kind of parasocial relationships.

Parasocial relationships are really that kind of one-sided relationship where you might know a whole lot about a celebrity, in this case, but they're not really reacting to you.

They're not sending you messages.

They're not answering your friend's letter, if that actually ever got sent to Ed Sheeran.

But the individuals, the way that we kind of think about this, individuals who are on that vulnerable narcissism side, they kind of have this almost like a void.

They don't have a strong sense of self.

They might be dealing with a lot of anxiety.

And actually, these parasocial relationships with their celebrity might be an escape from that, or it might be a way to develop an emotional connection that doesn't have

the same kind of consequences that may be problematic as a real relationship.

So they're using that as potentially a way to fill a void, establish a connection that actually might

gradually get stronger and stronger and stronger.

And then we know that these types of obsessive pathological levels of worship are related to a lot of other problematic things like depression, anxiety, problematic internet use, addiction potential, substance use, all sorts of different things.

But

You know, it gradually might build because the more they seek that as a coping mechanism or filling a void, it could just get worse and worse and worse.

Yeah, I think we all have fans.

I know for me, I follow Iron Maiden.

Larry would be your Motley Crue guy.