Bella Hadid posts crying photos to share mental health struggles

NEW YORK - American supermodel Bella Hadid has opened up about her mental health issues in an emotional post on social media.

In a post on Instagram on Tuesday (Nov 9), she shared several photos of her crying and wrote: "This is pretty much my every day, every night. For a few years now."

The 25-year-old, who usually posts glamorous photos, told her 47.2 million followers: "Social media is not real. For anyone struggling, please remember that."

Hadid, who has walked in Victoria's Secret runway shows, said: "Self help and mental illness/chemical imbalance is not linear and it is almost like a flowing rollercoaster of obstacles… it has its ups and downs, and side to sides."

The younger sister of model Gigi Hadid added: "But I want you to know, there is always light at the end of the tunnel, and the rollercoaster always comes to a complete stop at some point."

She said it took her a long time to recognise that. "I've had enough breakdowns and burnouts to know this: if you work hard enough on yourself, spending time alone to understand your traumas, triggers, joys, and routine, you will always be able to understand or learn more about your own pain and how to handle it."

She concluded: "Not sure why but it feels harder and harder to not share my truth on here. Thank you for seeing me and thank you for listening."

Bella Hadid also uploaded on her Instagram a video of singer Willow Smith, daughter of actor Will Smith, talking about mental health.

"And people forget that everyone is basically feeling the same way: lost, confused, not really sure why they're here," Willow Smith, 21, said in the video.

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"That anxiety, like, everyone is feeling that, and trying to cover it up in some way."

Hadid has previously talked about her mental health struggles, including on World Mental Health Day in October 2019.

She said then that it was a struggle she had been dealing with for a few years, but that she was "finally at a point where it doesn't consume me as much as before".

She took a break from social media in January this year as she sought to improve her mental health.

Her latest post came after her mother Yolanda Hadid was involved in an alleged altercation in September with former One Direction singer Zayn Malik, her elder sister's boyfriend.

Gigi Hadid and Malik, who have a one-year-old daughter together, split in October after the incident.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.