image: Mike Hennessy (CC BY 3.0)

 

You might think the world-famous celebrity Selena Gomez would have everything she ever wanted. She is massively successful with her career, her Instagram account has one of the biggest followings in the world,  and she has been in relationships with some of the biggest musicians ever. 

However, the actor and singer does battle with her very own demons, and in 2017 she went into rehab for 2 weeks to deal with her mental health issues which were largely caused by social media. 

At the time, Selena had 34 dates left of her Revival Tour, but blamed the cancellation on “side effects from lupus”. She has since spoken to Vogue about her experience at rehab, calling it one of the toughest things she has ever done, yet also the best thing. 

She explained to Vogue that tours for her are “a really lonely place.” She had low self esteem, and was suffering from both depression and anxiety. Just before her shows she would have panic attacks or she would experience them just after leaving the stage.  She felt as if she wasn’t good enough for her fans and that they were noticing that she wasn’t putting enough into the performance. However, this was just a distortion in her mind. 

 

Gomez checked into a rehabilitation clinic in Tennessee, where she stayed with 6 other girls. She described the girls as “real people who couldn’t give two s–ts about who I was.” They were all just fighting their own battles. She said “you have no idea how incredible it was to be with six girls.”

During her 90-day stay at the rehab, Gomez gave up all social media, including her massively popular instagram account, as she felt this was a big factor in her low self-esteem. “As soon as I became the most followed person on Instagram, I sort of freaked out.” She explained how the platform consumed her. She would look at it all day, first thing in the morning and last thing at night, even though she was seeing things that she didn’t want to see. 

Research shows that Selena is not alone with her addiction to social media. Reports show that 1-in-4 women actually struggle from mental health issues, and social media plays a large role in this. 

The singer now limits her instagram use, or tries to avoid it altogether when she can. She even reveals to Vogue that she is not a big fan of being famous. “I love what I do…but… I just really can’t wait for people to forget about me”.