Bella Hadid has opened up about her mental health struggles on Instagram. The American model shared several photos of herself in tears Tuesday, alongside a video of Willow Smith talking about how she doesn’t feel she is “good enough” at times. “Willow Smith, I love you and your words. It made me feel a little less alone and that’s why I’d like to post this,” Bella Hadid wrote on Instagram.
The 25-year-old spoke about the feelings of insecurity and confusion that we all tend to experience from time to time. “People forget that everyone is basically feeling the same way: lost, confused, not really sure why they’re here,” she said, adding that everyone felt anxiety and tried to cover it up in some way.
Bella Hadid has earlier spoken about battling severe anxiety and depression since she was a teenager.
In her post Tuesday, she reminded her 47 million Instagram followers that social media is not real life. While fans are used to seeing Bella on the runway, in glamorous pics from photoshoots or on the glossy pages of fashion magazines, the 25-year-old model wrote: “Social media is not real. For anyone struggling , please remember that.”
She posted a series of tearful selfies as she wrote: “This is pretty much my everyday, every night. For a few years now.”
“Sometimes all you’ve gotta hear is that you’re not alone,” she wrote in the caption. “So from me to you, you’re not alone. I love you, I see you, and I hear you.”
In her post, Bella Hadid urged everyone struggling with mental health to remember that mental illness and chemical imbalance are not “linear”.
She noted that feelings of helplessness and anxiety may stop and begin again.
“It is almost like a flowing rollercoaster of obstacles… it has its ups and downs , and side to sides. But I want you to know, there is always light at the end of the tunnel , and the rollercoaster always comes to a complete stop at some point,” she said.
Bella Hadid also wrote that she’s had “enough breakdowns and burnouts” to know that if you spend time enough to understand your traumas, triggers and joys, you learn how to handle your mental health better.
“If you work hard enough on yourself, spending time alone to understand your traumas, triggers, joys, and routine, you will always be able to understand or learn more about your own pain and how to handle it. Which is all that you can ask of yourself,” she said.
A number of celebrities, including sister Gigi Hadid, applauded Bella for opening up about her struggle with mental health.
“I love you,” wrote Gigi Hadid in the comments section.
“Your honesty and tenderness heals so many,” Willow Smith, whose own struggle with mental health inspired the post, said.
In January, Bella Hadid had taken a break from social media to focus on her mental health. “Take time to get help for your mental health,” Bella wrote after she returned to Instagram. “It’s worth it to get to your full potential.”