Lucy Devine
Selena Gomez has opened up on her health battle with lupus in her new Apple TV+ documentary, My Mind & Me.
The candid doc follows the singer and actor's career over the last six years, and sees Selena open up about her health conditions, which includes the autoimmune disease lupus.
Lupus is a long-term condition that causes joint pain, skin rashes and tiredness. There's no cure for lupus, and symptoms can flare up and down.
Symptoms include inflammation of different parts of the body including the lungs, heart, liver, joints and kidneys.
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Discussing her experience with the disease, Selena, 30, explained she had been suffering with extreme pain.
"I haven’t felt it since I was younger. Now it just hurts. Like, in the morning when I wake up, I immediately start crying because it hurts, everything," she said.
"I think my past and my mistakes, that’s what drives me into depression."
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In the film, a doctor then explains to Selena that the cause of her worsening symptoms was due to an overlap between lupus and another condition - myositis.
Myositis is the name for a group of rare conditions. The main symptoms are weak, painful or aching muscles, which usually gets worse over time.
The doctor prescribes Selena with Rituxan which is an intravenous drug.
"I just always feel better when I have answers, but the Rituxan was really hard to do last time. It’s about four hours, five hours. It’s really hard on your system at first, but it’s OK," she said.
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Later in the doc, Selena opens up about her mental health battle with bipolar disorder.
Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that affects a person's mood, which can swing from one extreme to another.
Those suffering with bipolar often have episodes of depression – including feelings of being very low and lethargic - and mania, in which the person feels very high and overactive.
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Selena was diagnosed in 2020 and recently told Rolling Stone that she contemplated suicide in her younger years.
“It would start with depression, then it would go into isolation,” she said. “Then it just was me not being able to move from my bed.
"I didn’t want anyone to talk to me. My friends would bring me food because they love me, but none of us knew what it was."
She explained that while she never attempted suicide, she spent a few years contemplating it, adding: “I thought the world would be better if I wasn’t there."
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You can find help, support and advice at Bipolar UK and mental health charity Mind.