Bella Hadid has spoken up about her mental health issues, calling them “excruciating and debilitating.”
According to People magazine, the 25-year-old model spoke to WSJ. Magazine for the publication’s ‘My Monday Morning’ feature, where she freely discussed her mental health difficulties. When asked about her morning routine, Hadid revealed that she hasn’t had a stylist in “a long time, maybe two years now,” and that she was “in such a weird place mentally” that it was “really difficult for me to get out of the house and put an outfit together, especially with the anxiety of [paparazzi] being outside and all that.”
“It was really important for me to learn in the last year that it doesn’t matter if people talk about my style, if they like it or if they don’t, because it’s my style,” she said. “Every morning as I leave the home, I ask myself, ‘Does this make me happy?’ “Do I look good and feel comfortable in this?”
Hadid proceeded to talk about her personal mental health in her interview with WSJ. Magazine, as well as her thinking process behind an Instagram post she uploaded in November 2021, in which she posted a series of photographs of herself sobbing.
“When my mom or doctor would ask how I was doing, instead of responding in text, I would just send them a photo,” she said. “At the time, it was the simplest thing for me to do because I could never express how I felt.”
“I’d just be in excruciating, debilitating mental and physical pain for no apparent reason.” That happened over the course of three years, she said, adding that she uploaded the photos “to let anyone who was feeling that way know it was OK to feel that way.”
Hadid went on to claim that she would “have really depressive episodes” and that “rather than having to respond in text, I would just send them a photo,” which encouraged her to use Instagram as a mental health tool rather than a flawlessly manicured portfolio.
“Even though things appear to be so beautiful on Instagram,” Hadid said, “at the end of the day, we are all cut from the same cloth.”
“I felt like it was simply wonderful for me to be able to speak my mind, and I eventually stopped being able to share attractive photographs. I’d had enough.”
The celebrity also said that she is experiencing more “good days” and that her “brain fog is feeling better.” amid some more terrible disclosures.
“I don’t feel depressed. I don’t have as much anxiety as I usually do. But tomorrow I could wake up and [be] the complete opposite,” she said, adding that the support she has received from others who have reached out has been helpful.
“That’s why I get so overwhelmed. But that post made me less lonely because I had a lot of people that have reached out saying, ‘I feel that way too.’ Walking outdoors and remembering that there are so many other individuals going through similar things and following similar patterns to me helps me feel better.”
“I’m not sure if that’s what people want on Instagram, and that’s fine,” she continued. “I’m not obligated to be on Instagram indefinitely. I believe that real is the new real, and that is what I care about.”
