Selena Gomez Says Getting on ‘the Right Medication’ Changed Her Life
Selena Gomez is getting ready to drop her highly anticipated album, Rare, this week, and ahead of its big release, she’s opening up about some of the extremely personal lessons she learned while making the record. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal magazine this week, Gomez got candid about her struggles with self-esteem and mental health, and shared that learning more about treatment and getting on the right medication “completely changed” her life.
Gomez has spoken about mental health and therapy in the past, and she took time off in 2018 to check herself into a psychiatric facility in Tennessee. She re-entered public life this year, slowly sharing new music and moments from the last couple of months on social media. She told the WSJ that she’s continued to seek treatment and to work on her health.
“I had low self-esteem, and that’s something I work on continuously. But I feel so empowered because I’ve gained so much knowledge about what was going on mentally,” she said. “My highs were really high, and my lows would take me out for weeks at a time.”
She added that it’s been through the right medication and through support systems that she’s been able to take care of herself. “I found out I do suffer from mental health issues. And, honestly, that was such a relief,” she continued. “I realized that there was a way to get help and to find people that you trust. I got on the right medication, and my life has been completely changed.”
One of the people she’s consistently counted on during difficult times is Taylor Swift, she says. “There’s so much of my friendship with Taylor that people don’t know about because we don’t necessarily feel the need to post about everything we do,” she said. “She has showed up for me in ways that I would have never expected. Flown in because I was hurt and was going through something. Stuff that was going on with my family. It’s been proven year after year and in every moment of my life that she is one of my best friends in the world. We don’t agree on everything, but we respect each other with everything.”
Selena Gomez’s third studio album, Rare, drops this Friday, January 10.