Selena Gomez Reveals ‘Depression Was My Life’ In Candid Instagram Live Q&A

24 September 2018, 13:40 | Updated: 19 November 2018, 16:00

By Sam Prance

This is so important...

Ever since the start of her career, Selena Gomez has been candid about her health. In 2015, the 'Bad Liar' hitmaker revealed that she had been diagnosed with lupus and, since then, she's not only used her platform to help raise awareness about the auto-immune disease, she's also opened up about the surgeries that she's had to have because of it. Just last year, she had to have a kidney transplant.

It's not just her physical health that Selena's been open about though. The 'Fetish' singer has also talked at length about her mental health. In 2016, Selena cancelled the European leg of her Revival Tour after suffering "panic attacks" as a side effect of her lupus. Selena then went to rehab to recover and, since then, she's made a conscious effort to put her mental health first and speak up about it.

Watch Selena discuss her mental health in the videos above and below.

Selena Gomez
Selena Gomez. Picture: Beats 1 // Instagram

Now Selena is opening up about her experiences with depression and anxiety in a more in depth way. This weekend, the 'Who Says' star did a live Instagram Q&A with her fans. In it, she stated: “Depression was my life for 5 years straight. Depression and anxiety were the forefront of everything that I did in my life. Every single thing. I would make myself have the courage to just keep going.”

Selena even spoke about her panic attacks: "I get this feeling where I start sweating in places because I'm nervous" and her coping mechanisms: "Anxiety is a very difficult thing but what helps me through everything is my faith." And talking to a fan who suffers them too, Selena said: "If you feel anxiety and get panic attacks it's completely normal."

Selena then went on to Instagram stories the next day to recommend a song that helps her with anxiety and depression.

Selena may be a celebrity but millions of people go through similar mental health struggles. Seeing Selena talk so honestly about her own depression and anxiety is so important because it helps normalise mental illness and break the stigma that unfortunately still surrounds it.

Mental health is no joke and it's great to see people with platforms like Selena be so frank about it.