Selena Gomez, 24, is a successful businesswoman, singer and actress.
The last few years have been quite turbulent for the Disney star as she has struggled with mental health issues and experienced a very public breakup. In the latest issue of Vogue, Selena opens up about rehab and how taking a break from Instagram is helping her heal.
In 2016, Selena was crowned the ‘queen of Instagram’ for having the most liked photos and surpassing more than 103 million followers. Only Instagram itself has more. However, being deemed the ‘queen’ of social media comes with its disadvantages, particularly when you suffer from mental health issues that can be exacerbated by it.
In the April issue of Vogue, she opens up about the pressures she felt, shortly after being given the title.
“As soon as I became the most followed person on Instagram, I sort of freaked out. It had become so consuming to me. It’s what I woke up to and went to sleep to. I was an addict, and it felt like I was seeing things I didn’t want to see, like it was putting things in my head that I didn’t want to care abou. I always end up feeling like s–t when I look at Instagram,” the 24-year-old singer says. “Which is why I’m kind of under the radar, ghosting it a bit.”
The situation got so bad that Gomez handed over all control to her assistant Theresa who now posts pictures to Instagram, on her behalf. She doesn’t even know her own password.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOJMofBBsMB/?taken-by=tmarie247&hl=en
The decision to unplug came after Selena entered treatment in 2016 after suffering from Depression and Anxiety, both side effects of Lupus which she has been battling for several years.
Selena was forced to cancel her tour in 2013 after a flare up of the condition that affects the immune system. She later revealed she had been diagnosed with lupus in 2010 and had kept it secret.
Selena recently made a donation to support research into lupus at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.
She made the gift to establish the Selena Gomez Fund for Lupus Research.
“People so badly wanted me to be authentic, and when that happened, finally, it was a huge release. I’m not different from what I put out there. I’ve been very vulnerable with my fans, and sometimes I say things I shouldn’t. But I have to be honest with them. I feel that’s a huge part of why I’m where I am.”
She also spoke about how the pressures of her Revival tour led her to check herself into a rehabilitation facility last year.
Tours are a really lonely place for me,’ she explained. ‘My self-esteem was shot. I was depressed, anxious. I started to have panic attacks right before getting onstage, or right after leaving the stage. Basically I felt I wasn’t good enough, wasn’t capable.
‘I felt I wasn’t giving my fans anything, and they could see it—which, I think, was a complete distortion. I was so used to performing for kids… Suddenly I have kids smoking and drinking at my shows, people in their 20s, 30s, and I’m looking into their eyes, and I don’t know what to say….
“What I wanted to say is that life is so stressful, and I get the desire to just escape it. But I wasn’t figuring my own stuff out, so I felt I had no wisdom to share. And so maybe I thought everybody out there was thinking, ‘This is a waste of time.'”
Selena is on her way to peace of mind and is currently in a relationship with singer, The Weeknd. She is also working on promotion for the TV adaption of the best-selling book Thirteen Reasons Why written by Jay Asher, a show that has been produced by mum’s production company Kicked2theCurbProductions.
We wish Selena Gomez the best of luck with everything!
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