The actress and singer said that “taking a break from social media was the best decision that I’ve ever made for my mental health”
For Selena Gomez, the last two years have been spent working on her mental health.
The actress and singer, 29, suffered an emotional breakdown in 2018 that led her to seek dialectical behavior therapy, a form of talk therapy, to manage her depression and anxiety. And in a new interview with InStyle, Gomez reflected on how far she’s come.
“I became aware that my little world is complicated, but the picture is much bigger than the stuff I deal with,” she said of the last two years. “I have problems with depression and anxiety, and I found it difficult for me to be me.”
Gomez initially avoided talking about her mental health struggles on social media “because I realized I was in a situation where I was extremely blessed,” she said.
And as she continued to deal with depression, Gomez realized that it would help to take a break from all platforms.
“At one point Instagram became my whole world, and it was really dangerous,” she said. “… Taking a break from social media was the best decision that I’ve ever made for my mental health. I created a system where I still don’t have my passwords. And the unnecessary hate and comparisons went away once I put my phone down. I’ll have moments where that weird feeling will come back, but now I have a much better relationship with myself.”
The Only Murders in the Building star said that therapy also made a huge difference in her mental health.
“I’m a big believer in therapy, and I always feel so confident when I’m taking care of myself,” she said. “If I’m not in the best headspace and my friends invite me out, I won’t go. I’ve lost my sense of FOMO, which I’m proud of. Sometimes I push myself too much, and it catches up to me. But I try to balance out everything as best as I can. I like to be there for my friends and celebrate everyone. But I have to make sure that I’m OK, you know? Because if I’m not OK, I can’t be OK for other people.”
And while she avoided talking about her anxiety and depression at first, Gomez has made “changing the narrative of mental health” a major part of her career. She regularly talks about it in interviews and is working on creating a curriculum that can be taught in schools to help kids be more open about how they’re feeling.
“I’m just so passionate about that, and I think I will continue to be for the rest of my life,” she said. “Especially since the pandemic, there are so many people I know who craved help but had no idea how to get it. I have big aspirations for that field and really want to implement more education behind it.”
