Photo Courtesy of NBC News
It was 2016. Former Disney Channel juggernaut Selena Gomez was coming off the success of her second studio album “Revival,” released in Oct. 2015, and was slated to embark on an international tour with over 100 shows, hitting five different continents and dozens of countries and cities along the way.
The tour kicked off in May 2016, and by August of the same year, the doors had been slammed shut on the “Revival” tour when Gomez cancelled nearly all of her scheduled dates outside of the United States due to side effects from lupus, an autoimmune disease.
And so began one of the most difficult periods of Gomez’s life, eventually birthing 2022’s “My Mind and Me,” a documentary film following Gomez’s struggles with mental health and chronic illness over the last six years.
Gomez has never been one to shy away from her struggles with mental illness. In 2020, she revealed her diagnosis of bipolar disorder to the public after she was checked in to a mental health facility to receive treatment during an episode of psychosis.
Gomez’s documentary details this frightening moment, which occurred after a treatment for lupus in which Gomez attempted to rip an IV out of her arm and escape her hospital room.
Gomez’s mother, Mandy Teefey, stated that Gomez was “unrecognizable” during the psychotic episode, and the rest of her family was worried she may never return from the state of psychosis she was in.
A significant portion of the film is also dedicated to Gomez’s trip to Kenya in 2019. While visiting the country, Gomez lived with Kenyan school children and leaders for one week for the benefit of the WE Charity during a trip she called “life-changing.”
During this experience, Gomez also visited an all-women’s college, encouraging the female leaders to keep raising strong children to live successful lives.
After returning from the trip, Gomez expressed both gratitude and guilt about the retreat, stating that she felt “so selfish” filming a trip to a developing nation for the purpose of a documentary.
Gomez didn’t fail to mention her roots in “My Mind and Me,” either. The “Only Murders in the Building” star took a trip to her hometown of Grand Prairie, Texas, to visit her old neighbors and her former middle school.
Gomez stressed the importance of not forgetting where she came from throughout the documentary and also included a vulnerable and serious scene about her lupus diagnosis with her terminally ill former neighbor.
What Gomez does in “My Mind and Me” is helping to break barriers in the conversation of mental health with the general public. Gomez is a pioneer for the modern mental health conversation that we’re having with ourselves today through social media and life experiences – it’s okay to not be okay.
Not only does the pop superstar make a point to bring light to these conversations, but she also provides viewers with mental health resources. That is admirable in its own right – it’s evident that Gomez cares not only through her words, but her actions, as well. For a fan to know they are not alone through one of the world’s biggest music stars is a huge step forward in society’s conversation around mental health, and Gomez deserves her flowers for that.
“My Mind and Me” is now available to stream exclusively on Apple TV+.
