Selena Gomez’s new documentary My Mind & Me is finally here and being streamed by fans, and many fans are praising the star for bravely speaking out about her mental struggles with bipolar disorder, her lupus battle, body image issues and voiced the altercation with overwhelming fame.
Gomez’s latest mental health updates and Rolling Stone profile
The 30-year-old The Only Murders In The Building actress recently graced the cover of Rolling Stone for an intimate and heartbreaking interview, in which she discussed the issues covered in the new document, as well as recent updates on her mental health over the weeks leading up to it The release of My Mind & Me (available to stream now on Apple TV+ starting November 4, 2022).
In the interview, Gomez told the publication that she was initially nervous about her fans’ reactions right before the in-person documentary was set to premiere. The new film, which was initially only supposed to cover her on her revival tour, finally showed Gomez recovering from her diagnosis of bipolar disorder in 2019, a psychotic break in 2018, her kidney transplant in 2017 due to her ongoing struggle against lupus, romantic heartbreak, and other painful obstacles.
“Because I have the platform that I have, it’s like I’m sacrificing a little bit for a bigger cause,” she said. “I don’t want that to sound dramatic, but I almost didn’t get it out. To be honest, a few weeks ago I wasn’t sure if I could pull this off.” Ultimately, Gomez wanted her fans to take an intimate look at her personal life to help them through similar experiences, especially those who were also suffer from bipolar disorder. “I thought, ‘Okay, if I can do this for just one person, imagine what it could do.’ At some point I just went for it. I just said ‘yes’.”
Gomez also revealed to the magazine that while she can look back on her documentary with pride and gratitude, her message to fans isn’t that she’s fully healed. (Healing, as she explains, is a long and sometimes grueling journey that doesn’t happen overnight). “I’m not doing well and I’m just back to happily ever after,” she told Rolling Stone. The Rare Beauty founder revealed that she worries she won’t be able to carry children while she’s on her current bipolar medication, and the magazine reported that she’s been using dialectical and cognitive-behavioral therapy to “make bipolar mine to make a girlfriend”.
The story goes on
Another message from Gomez to her followers was that she’s currently focused on staying positive and remembering how much she’s grown as a person and as a performer as her bipolar disorder just won’t ever go away. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my psychotic break, if it wasn’t for my lupus, if it wasn’t for my diagnosis,” she told the publication. “I’m depressed when I think about who I would be.”
Other takeaways from My Mind & Me:
Gomez confessed to hearing voices during her revival tour in 2018, but as revealed in her documentary, she was unaware of what was really happening at the time. Her assistant Theresa said that the “Lose You To Love Me” singer “heard all these voices and they just got louder and louder and louder.” Gomez was eventually taken to a psychosis treatment center.
Gomez reportedly doesn’t remember much from that time, The Cut reports, but in the documentary, friends and family said she suffered from paranoia and was almost unrecognizable, and was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder shortly after. At the end of the documentary, Gomez told fans that she’s still trying to remind herself to prioritize her own needs and self-care. “When you’re struggling with your mental health, it’s important to know what to do and to recognize that,” she said, adding, “It’s something I’m not ashamed of.”
Healthy fan reactions
In the weeks since Gomez’s first trailer for My Mind & Me dropped (and now in the hours since they finally saw the doc), fans have flooded Gomez’s Instagram comment sections and created Twitter threads dedicated to her “strength.” ‘ pay homage to one fan’s ‘resilience’ as another noted and how much she ‘inspires’ them as another commented.
As one wrote on her recent IG post: “Your story brought me to tears, I love you endlessly. I was so deeply touched and overwhelmed by your raw feelings. I feel so loved and cared for. It’s been a very tough year for me and just watching your documentary makes me feel seen and not lonely. Many Thanks.”
Another shared a similar sentiment, tweeting and expressing his gratitude: “As a bipolar person, @selenagomez’s documentary is really relevant and so inspirational too. I think it’s great that she’s opening up about this. Bipolar has such a stigma and your documentary will help people see another side of it.”