Selena Gomez has spoken candidly about her mental health on a panel at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.
The Lose You to Love Me singer, 31, who has bipolar disorder, anxiety and lupus, was a special guest at the Mindfulness Over Perfection: Getting Real On Mental Health session.
The Rare Beauty founder said that she hit ”rock bottom” before deciding to talk about her battle with her mental health.
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However, Gomez insisted she is in ”a better place now”.
“I will say this, you can’t force someone to do it,” she said.
“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,” she explained.
“I had to hit my rock bottom and I had to do it at my time. I’d like to think and hope that I’m in a better place now.”
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Talking about her My Mind & Me documentary that came out in 2022, Gomez said she’s upset about the way she used to talk about herself.
“It makes me sick to hear the things that I was saying about myself in the beginning. It bums me out,” she explained.
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“But I think everyone an relate to that feeling. 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 b—-ing about then, I’m grateful for now.”
Gomez’s last tour was in 2016 for her Revival album, which was cancelled midway through due to her mental health struggles.
The singer was diagnosed with Lupus and cancelled the tour after 55 shows.
In My Mind and Me, her friend described the reason for the cancellation as a ”psychotic break”.
“At one point she’s like, ‘I don’t want to be alive right now. I don’t want to live,'” Gomez’s former assistant Theresa said. “And I’m like, ‘Wait, what?’ It was one of those moments where you look in her eyes and there’s nothing there. It was just pitch black. It’s so scary.
“You’re like, ‘F–k this. This needs to end. We need to go home.'”
After cancelling her tour, Gomez sought treatment at a mental facility for her diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
If you or someone you know is in need of support contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue. In the event of an emergency dial Triple Zero (000).