Talking about mental illness isn’t easy. There is still a stigma that surrounds mental illness, and when people hear the words “bipolar disorder”, they don’t always think the best.
I have bipolar disorder and have been called such things as crazy, psycho, mental, etc. It’s a scary thing to admit.
It’s why when celebrities talk about their mental illness and come forward with their diagnoses.
Selena Gomez recently came forward with her diagnosis and personally, I applaud her.
On April 3rd, the singer was on Miley Cyrus’ Bright Minded Instagram show, and came forward with her bipolar diagnosis.
Selena said that she was diagnosed after visiting McLean Hospital, one of the leading mental health hospitals in the United States.
She also said that learning more about her disorder has helped her to be less afraid of her diagnosis.
“When I have more information, it actually helps me, it doesn’t scare me once I know it…When I finally said what I was going to say, I wanted to know everything about it and it took the fear away,” Selena said on the show.
“When I was younger, I was scared of thunderstorms and my mom bought me all these books on thunderstorms and she was like, ‘The more you educate yourself on this, the more that you’re not going to be afraid.’ It completely worked. That’s something that helps me big time,” she added.
We’re proud of Selena for all the work that she has put into herself, but even more so for talking openly about her disorder.
It gives other people who have the disorder more courage to talk about it and feel less alone.
