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Selena Gomez is opening up about having her mental health journey play out in the public eye in a new interview with her mom, Mandy Teefey .
Being such a popular public figure, the actress, singer, and now beauty mogul knows she has a lot of fans who look up to her. Because of that, when she was given the opportunity to share her struggles with anxiety and depression, Selena knew she had a responsibility to speak out.
“For me, I had to give up social media… so I would go through these periods when I wouldn‘t [use my accounts], but I got so angry that my story was twisted into so many different things,” she shared in a joint interview with here mom for The Newsette. “The first time I posted [again], I was like, ‘I claim my own story, so if you don’t hear it from me, then it’s not true. Did I go and get help? Yes I did. But I’m not ashamed. I feel better and I feel like I can understand a lot of things now.’”
Selena continued, saying, “I think that was my moment when I knew [nobody] was going to take my story away from me. And I really do believe that I made the circle, if you will, of making the media look like s--t if they’re making fun of someone who has mental health issues.”
A few months ago, Selena joined her fellow Disney Channel alum Miley Cyrus in an Instagram Live, which is where she publicly shared for the first time that she is bipolar.
Before going into detail about her diagnosis in April, the star opened up about therapy and why she decided to seek help for her mental health.
“My highs were really high, and my lows would take me out for weeks at a time,” the star described to WSJ Magazine at the time. ”I found out I do suffer from mental health issues...I got on the right medication, and my life has been completely changed.”
While the initial critics and her story being twisted were a setback, initially, Selena has no plan to stop sharing her story.
“I don‘t really care what people think about me,” Selena continued in her latest interview. ”On my own social media, I got to tell the truth. And once I started claiming my own name, I think people understood my mental health journey. Now I get to support other people, and with the Rare Impact Fund, we’re pledging to donate $100 million in 10 years to mental health causes, so now I get to talk more openly about mental health to hopefully help others.”