Selena Gomez Says She ‘Had to Hit My Rock Bottom’ Before Overcoming Mental Health Struggles

Selena Gomez is continuing to speak out about her mental health struggles. During a SXSW wellness panel held in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, the 31-year-old singer-actress reflected on her vulnerable 2022 documentary My Mind & Me, revealing that she feels she had to hit “rock bottom” before she was able to overcome various challenges.

Speaking at the Austin Convention Center alongside her mother and WonderMind co-founder Mandy Teefey — as well as New York Jets defensive tackle Solomon Thomas and Dr. Corey Yeager — Gomez confessed that she went “back and forth” about releasing My Mind & Me to the public. “The moment I did that, I felt this insane amount of release,” she continued. “There wasn’t any hiding anymore. It was probably one of the hardest moments of my life.”

Filmed over the course of six years, the doc follows the “Single Soon” singer as she battles depressive episodes and anxiety. In 2020, Gomez revealed that she was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder.

“I will say this, you can’t force someone to do it,” she told moderator Dr. Jessica Stern of the recovery process. “It just doesn’t work. There was a lot of people that cared about me more than I cared about myself that really wanted me to do things I wasn’t ready for. I had to hit my rock bottom and I had to do it at my time.”

She added, “I’d like to think and hope that I’m in a better place now.”

In My Mind & Me — for which Gomez released a song of the same name — the Rare Beauty founder also demonstrates a tendency to talk negatively about herself, especially in the beginning. At the panel, she said it makes her “sick” to look back at the film and relive how she used to self-deprecate.

“It bums me out, but I think everybody can relate to that feeling,” she said. “It’s important to speak to yourself with kindness, but I don’t think I really understood that. It’s funny because all the things I was b—-ing about then, I’m grateful for now.”

Gomez recently released her new single “Love On,” which debuted at No. 56 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the week dated March 9. Before that came the Benny Blanco-produced “Single Soon,” which reached No. 19, although the star isn’t sure either of the tracks will make it onto her next LP.

“I would like to say that I am working towards an album, but I don’t know if those songs would be on that project,” she told Billboard earlier this month. “I feel like I’m brewing, and I’m in the process of really creating some great songs, hopefully. I don’t know if they would fit with what I’m gonna go with.”