Selena Gomez has opened up about the time she “hit rock bottom” with her mental health.
During a SXSW panel in Austin, Texas, the singer reflected on her 2022 documentary My Mind & Me, which she admitted she went “back and forth” about releasing to the public.
“The moment I did that, I felt this insane amount of release,” she admitted. “There wasn’t any hiding anymore. It was probably one of the hardest moments of my life.”
The documentary was filmed over six years and charted Gomez’s experiences with anxiety and depression and later, her diagnosis of bipolar disorder in 2020.
“I will say this, you can’t force someone to do it,” she told moderator Dr. Jessica Stern of the recovery process. “It just doesn’t work. There was a lot of people that cared about me more than I cared about myself that really wanted me to do things I wasn’t ready for. I had to hit my rock bottom and I had to do it at my time.”
She added: “I’d like to think and hope that I’m in a better place now.”
Gomez added that it makes her “sick” to watch the film back and see how self-deprecating she once was, especially near its beginning.
“It bums me out, but I think everybody can relate to that feeling,” she said. “It’s important to speak to yourself with kindness, but I don’t think I really understood that. It’s funny because all the things I was bitching about then, I’m grateful for now.”
Last month, Gomez expressed her long-time love of Kurt Cobain in a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
“My mom obviously would play all kinds of music for me growing up,” she said. “I kind of got obsessed and dyed my hair and cut my hair like him.”
“I know a little too much,” she added, saying that she had posters of Cobain on her walls and that she “would rewatch his interviews, I would watch his performances, I had seen his documentary like 12 times.”
For help and advice on mental health:
- CALM – The Campaign Against Living Miserably
- Help Musicians UK – Around the clock mental health support and advice for musicians (CALL MUSIC MINDS MATTER ON: 0808 802 8008)
- Music Support Org – Help and support for musicians struggling with alcoholism, addiction, or mental health issues (CALL: 0800 030 6789)
- YOUNG MINDS – The voice for young people’s health and wellbeing
- Time To Change – Let’s end mental health discrimination
- The Samaritans – Confidential support 24 hours a day
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