Bella Hadid vents about depression: ‘There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel’

BBC News Brazil

American model Bella Hadid, 25, went public to talk about the “roller coaster” that has been her mental health, with “crises and burnouts”, amid a framework of depression and anxiety. On Instagram, where she has 47 million followers, she reminded those who are hurting too that “you’re not alone.”

She wrote in response to a video by American actress and singer Willow Smith about insecurity and anxiety. According to Hadid, the material made her feel “less alone”. The model shared an excerpt of this alongside a series of photos of herself crying.

“Social media is not reality. For anyone who is suffering, remember this. Sometimes all you need to hear is that you are not alone,” he wrote. “I’ve had enough crises and burnouts (burnout syndrome) to know this: if you work hard enough on yourself, spending time alone to understand your traumas, triggers and routines, you will always be able to understand or learn more about your own pain and how to deal with it”.

This is not the first time Hadid talks about these diseases, which he has faced since adolescence. In 2019, for example, the model said on World Mental Health Day that this picture of anxiety or depression “was a battle that most of us have dealt with in the past or are currently dealing with.”

According to an estimate by the WHO (World Health Organization), 11.5 million Brazilians (or 5.8% of the country’s population) have already had at least one episode of depression. It is the highest rate on the Latin American continent.

In her post, Hadid also shared some advice with followers who may face mental health issues, which can be treated by specialist professionals such as psychiatrists and psychologists.

“I want you to know that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, and the roller coaster will always come to a complete stop at some point,” he said. “There’s always room to start over, but it’s always been good for me to know that even if it goes on for a few days, weeks or months, it’s going to get better, to some extent, even for a moment.”

IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORKS

In January of this year, Hadid claimed to have turned away from social media to try to improve his mental health. And she’s not the only one. American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey closed her accounts in September, and English musician Ed Sheeran has hardly used these platforms since 2015.

The company that owns Instagram, Meta (formerly Facebook), has come in for mounting criticism, including a former employee who said the photo and video platform “was more dangerous than other forms of social networking.”

Frances Haugen, who denounced the company, said last month that Instagram has “unquestionably worsened hatred (on the internet)”. According to her, the platform is about “social comparisons and about bodies, about lifestyles and all of this ends up being much worse among young people”.

A survey by the Pew Research Institute, in the United States, showed that four out of ten Americans have already been the target of some type of abuse or aggression on the internet. Among younger people, cyber attacks are even more common: six out of ten people under the age of 30 say they have experienced it.

In some cases, hatred can trigger a bout of depression and other mental disorders. It is important to say that science still cannot pinpoint the exact relationship between social networks and mental health.

There are studies that show that there is a correlation between the use of social networks and having depression, for example. But as any good scientist will tell you, correlation is not the same as causing.

Research also indicates that depressed people tend to take refuge on social media. So, which came first: the chicken or the egg?

Another important point: depression and other mental disorders have a series of combined causes, which include genetics, social environment and a person’s life history.

TYPES OF DEPRESSION

There are different classes of depression. The depression that affects most patients is unipolar, also known as major depressive disorder. The most common cause is genetic in nature, but it can also be caused by losses, stress and even neurological problems.

Diagnosis depends on evaluating the family’s history of psychiatric illnesses, and there are still no clinical tests, such as blood tests or MRI, capable of identifying the disorder.

Another type is bipolar depression, considered the most difficult to identify. A study published in the Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry showed that, on average, it takes eight years to diagnose a patient with bipolar depression.

Type 1 bipolar disorder is the most classic form and is characterized by euphoria (mania and hypomania). In the case of type 2, which is bipolar depression, the patient presents conditions of sadness and hypomania — a lighter state of euphoria, optimism and, at times, aggressiveness.

A depressed person tends to lose interest in their daily activities. You are sad and discouraged for more than a few days. You may have trouble sleeping or lose your appetite. In the most serious cases, he even thinks about suicide.

If you are thinking about committing suicide, seek help at the Life Valorization Center and the CAP (Psychosocial Care Center in your city).

CVV (https://www.cvv.org.br/) works 24 hours a day (including holidays) by phone 188, and also answers via email, chat and in person. There are more than 120 service stations throughout Brazil.