Selena Gomez Revealed What Her Bipolar Diagnosis Revealed About Her Lifelong Emotional Patterns
Selena Gomez has been open about her bipolar disorder since her diagnosis. The actor and singer said it took a long time to receive the diagnosis. Once she had it, though, she said it didn’t scare her. Instead, she felt grateful that it provided her with a framework to look at her past emotional patterns.
Selena Gomez said her bipolar diagnosis helped her better understand herself
Gomez has spent years discussing her mental health with fans. Her journey has not been easy, and she said she was misdiagnosed before finally learning she had bipolar disorder.
“I knew something was wrong, but I think I was misdiagnosed,” she said on Friends Keep Secrets, per People. “People were just assuming, and I would try multiple therapists. And that’s why it’s hard. It’s actually really hard when we’re talking about these things. And for me to go get a therapist, all of it is so f***ing complicated.”
In 2020, shortly after she received her diagnosis, she explained that things became easier for her.
“When I got to know more information, it actually helps me,” she said on Miley Cyrus’ Instagram show Bright Minded. “It doesn’t scare me once I know it.”
She noted that her diagnosis put her past behavior in a new context. She could better understand herself.
“That’s the problem with misconception,” Gomez said. “The whole hypocrisy of shaming people for therapy or people not understanding it is that it’s just not for you. That’s completely fine, but for me, it finally allowed me to go, ‘Oh, that’s why I handled things the way I handled it. That’s why all the other people were able to get over things so quickly and I wasn’t.'”
She said her reactions made more sense to her.
“I would act out of fear, I would act out of love, I would act out of passion,” she said. “It was all inconsistent, it was crazy.”
Benny Blanco said Selena Gomez is sometimes not aware of the way her bipolar disorder impacts her
Even after her diagnosis, Gomez’s husband, Benny Blanco, said she will still “have moments where she’s having mania and she doesn’t know.”
“She’ll start to realize she’s having it after it’s happening, and sometimes she doesn’t even remember when it’s happening,” he said. “It’s such a delicate thing because you’re not supposed to technically talk to that person about it while they’re deep in it. And it’s like, even dating her and she’s so hyperaware, she’ll be like, ‘I think I’m feeling a little manic.'”
She said she doesn’t feel ashamed about these moments. It helps that she has a supportive partner.
“I’m not ashamed at all because I can catch them a bit quicker,” she said. “But it is helpful to have a partner that will understand where the temperature is at and meet you where you are, and then you gradually understand what’s happening.”
She spoke about how therapy changed her life
Gomez has been a vocal proponent of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) for years. She believes the program, which is a type of talk therapy, has changed her life. She practices it every day.
“I want to put this as a curriculum into schools,” she told Vogue Australia. “I feel like I practice [DBT] every day…And then I also love being in the studio. Because the first hour I’m in a studio, I just talk. It’s like therapy. You just go in and you share your heart.”
She said that continuing to build an understanding of her mental health struggles helps her feel better.
“You can find ways to live in it. But once you understand it, the fear of you admitting that you have something goes away.”
