Selena Gomez has been a longtime advocate for mental health awareness. However, it wasn’t always easy for the 32-year-old pop star and actress to open up about her own struggles. In 2022, she released her documentary titled Selena Gomez: My Mind & Mewhich offers a raw insight into six years of her career. The Apple TV+ title showcased her mental woes to the world in a new light as the audience gained more depth into her 2018 episode of psychosis. Although she recovered from it, she was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is believed to have triggered the psychosis.
As the whole world knows it, she went public with her diagnosis in her 20s, something that her team advised her against, as reported by ETOnline. Earlier this year, she established loud and clear that she “was very proud” of her approach.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes October 10 as the World Mental Health Day. This year, the Disney star revisited some of her previous remarks regarding her personal experience with mental health and how she’s learned to lean on her inner circle over the years, among other things.
Also read | Taylor Swift impersonator making nearly $20K per performance wants no ‘Bad Blood’ with pop star
Selena Gomez on how her bedroom triggers bad mental health
As part of the ‘Keynote Conversation’ on Wondermind’s Mental Fitness Summit, Gomez opened up about several aspects of her life. Reiterating a statement she made last year, the Only Murders in the Building The star said that while one’s bedroom is considered a safe space, for her, that same space often became a “real trigger.” “Going through that whole period of my life, it was my bed that I was stuck to,” she said at the Music and Health Summit in Los Angeles in September 2023.
In another previous interview with Rolling Stone the year before that, she again candidly shared how she shared an ambivalent relationship with her bed. “It would start with depression, then it would go into isolation. Then, it was me not being able to move from my bed,” she recollected. “Sometimes, it was weeks I’d be in bed, to where even walking downstairs would get me out of breath.”
Her latest comments during the Wondermind discussion again dug up her unsavory memories linked to the bedroom, which is also why she no longer sleeps there. “I’m a very anxious person,” she began. “It’s kind of like doomsday, and I think having a positive conversation with yourself, even if that sounds weird, it’s really impactful. Like before I step out of the car, and there’s going to be lots of noises and stuff—if that’s the case, I’m not saying that’s every day—but I have to breathe, and I have to say, ‘All of this is a gift, and I may not be in the mood for this, [but] every time I see someone and end up making them smile, [it] always just makes my day no matter how I’m feeling.’”
She continued, “I’m a little bit different than my mom, because I spent too much time in my bedroom that I actually don’t even sleep in my bedroom anymore, because I associate it with such a really dark time.”
Gomez went on, “Being anxious is so debilitating sometimes, and yeah, I didn’t want to leave my bed for years, and part of it was I wasn’t doing the work. And you have to believe in yourself to do the work that will truly enlighten you a little bit.”
Also read | Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds follow in bestie Taylor Swift’s footsteps and donate to Hurricane Helene, Milton reliefs
Selena Gomez opens up on her struggles with social media
In the meantime, she also reflected on her relationship with social media, considering she has deactivated her Instagram on numerous occasions. Moreover, she admitted that over time she had to learn and then unlearn old days to come to terms with not feeling guilty for admitting she wasn’t doing well.
“I try my hardest to take these [social media] breaks, but equally I’ve had to stop trying to defend myself, because I should not be apologetic for being honest, for saying I’m not good, and that’s not nice what you said,” she noted.
The Wizards of Waverly Place The alum pointed out that her mother had been instrumental in teaching her how noise would constantly be there, but ultimately she had to find “that moment where I actually physically say, ‘No, I am a good person, I’m kind, I work. really hard, and I’m grateful, and I love all the little things in life,’ and I need that reminder. I’m not going to lie, it kind of hurts. I’m definitely not one of the people who can kind of ignore it. It’s just too—I’m just speaking on my generation’s behalf because it’s wild how inhumane people can be with their words and things they would probably never say in person either. It just hurts.”
The “Look At Me Now” crooner also appeared in an Instagram interview with fashion influencer Remi Bader at a Rare Beauty x Sephora event in NYC a day before World Mental Health Day. There, too, she reflected on how she had taught herself to use social media healthily.
“I think it depends on how you use it.” [social media.] I think it’s important for reasons I won’t go into, to really help people,” she explained. “Then there’s the negative side of it where you’re just getting too much of what you don’t need to see that’s not fueling your soul.”
She underlined the importance of limiting yourself when it comes to spending time on apps. “It’s important to make sure you time it, like, I’ll take a few days off,” she shared her tips. “And then it’s also important to try to create and follow accounts that will bring in fresh content that you actually need and, I mean, I love quotes. I’m like, ‘This is what I needed to hear today.’”
During the interaction on Thursday, she seemed more positive about her current situation and ways of coping with mental woes.“I don’t have a lot of people in my life, [but] I know who my inner circle is,” she informed. “There is a freedom in letting go of whatever it is that’s keeping you stuck and that lump in your throat.”
