Selena Gomez Speaks Candidly About Her Bipolar in New Interview

Triple-threat multiplatinum singer/actress/producer Selena Gomez recently sat for an interview for the September cover of ELLE Magazine, titled “The Return of Selena Gomez,” in which she didn’t shy away from discussing her bipolar disorder.

• What is Bipolar disorder?

“I felt a huge weight lifted off me when I found out [I have bipolar],” she tells the mag. “I could take a deep breath and go, OK, that explains so much.’”

These days, there seems to be barely any stigma about coming out as bipolar — if you’re a celebrity, at least. Among the living, we who have bipolar are in splendid company: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kanye West, David Harbour, Scott Stapp, Linda Hamilton and Richard Dreyfuss all have bipolar disorder.

In the world of pop music, we now have four stars who have come out as bipolar: Mariah Carey, Halsey, Bebe Rexha, and the latest to come out — Gomez. The former Disney star was executive producer of the controversial hit Netflix show “13 Reasons Why.”  She divulged her bipolar status in April of 2020 during fellow Disney alum Miley Cyrus’ Instagram Live show “Bright Minded.”

“You know, I had gone to treatment a few times for anxiety and for depression, and for other stuff that I had been struggling with,” Gomez told Cyrus back then.

Gomez expounded on her mental health in ELLE, saying: “There were all things that honestly should have taken me down. Every time I went through something, I was like, ‘What else? What else am I going to have to deal with?'”

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Gomez has also been diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease, for which she received a kidney transplant and chemotherapy.

She resisted self-harm, noting that she was tempted. “There could have been a time when I wasn’t strong enough and would have done something to hurt myself,” Gomez tells ELLE.

Taking a break from social media and her cell phone, Gomez went as far as giving her passwords to her assistant in 2017 in order to avoid going online. As a result of avoiding the internet, her anxiety went into remission.

Then Gomez had a revelation — that she was put on this earth to help people. Selena disclosed the personal mantra she told herself every day to get her through the pain: “‘You’re going to help people.’”

And that’s what she is indeed doing. “I’m like, ‘I’ve got to do something [more],” she says. “’After I’m gone, I want people to remember me for my heart,’ This tiny little phone that had 150 million people on it — I just put it down. That was such a relief for me,” the singer explains.

Now, Gomez is in a much better headspace than when she was first diagnosed as she reflects on the cards she’s been dealt. “My lupus, my kidney transplant, chemotherapy, having a mental illness, going through very public heartbreaks,” she tells ELLE. “These were all things that honestly should have taken me down.”

But they didn’t. Instead, Selena Gomez stands tall. She’s alive. And she’s thriving.