Bella Hadid on overcoming her ‘excruciating and debilitating’ depressive episodes

Bella Hadid suffered so many ‘depressive episodes’ that she shared a slideshow of her sad selfies with her captive 48.4M Instagram followers back on November 9.

‘That post made me less lonely because I had a lot of people that have reached out saying, “I feel that way too,”‘ the 25-year-old IMG Model told WSJ. Magazine’s My Monday Morning.

‘[When I posted them] it was to make sure that anybody that was feeling that way knew it was okay to feel that way…Even though on Instagram things look so beautiful, at the end of the day, we are all cut from the same cloth. I felt like it was just good for me to be able to speak my truth and at some point I wasn’t able to post nice pretty pictures anymore. I was over it.’  

Hadid continued: ‘I don’t know if that’s not what people want on Instagram, and that’s fine. I don’t have to be on Instagram forever. I feel like real is the new real, and that’s what’s important to me.’

For the past three years – the half-Palestinian, half-Dutch socialite would send sad selfies to her mother Yolanda and doctor whenever she experienced ‘excruciating and debilitating mental and physical pain.’

‘I do have good days. Today is a good day,’ Bella noted.

‘My brain fog is feeling better, I don’t feel depressed. I don’t have as much anxiety as I usually do. But tomorrow I could wake up and [be] the complete opposite. That’s why I get so overwhelmed.’   

Back in 2017, Hadid told InStyle that that she took ’30 pills’ and self-administered ‘two shots a day in the keester’ to properly function with Lyme Disease.

‘I realize now that my body is a temple,’ the Versace stunner told WSJ of the tick-borne illness she contracted in 2012.

‘And the routine that we have in the morning, especially Monday mornings, is…almost the most important thing because if you don’t start your week on a good note, it’s not going to be good for you.’

Bella’s favorite book is Julia Cameron’s 1992 book The Artist’s Way and she journals three pages in her workbook and does gratitude meditations every morning.

Hadid’s New Year’s resolution for 2022 was to ‘get in the gym more often for my mental health’ and she was seen attending a private class at Forma Pilates in West Hollywood on January 4.

‘I love Pilates, because I’m just swinging and jumping on things,’ the DC-born, Malibu-raised beauty – who’s having a ‘dry January’ -explained.

‘I just want to have fun and I don’t want it to feel super heavy. The gym for me is also about the social aspect, about being around energy and people…What I love to do is take long walks on the Hudson. I love boxing. I love rowing. I like anything that seems like an activity.’

Forma Pilates instructor Liana Levi takes clients ‘by referral only’ and charges them between $100 and $500 for classes featuring the $9,499 Merrithew V2 Max Plus Reformer. 

Bella now styles herself because ‘it was really complicated for me to get out of the house and put an outfit together, especially with the anxiety of [paparazzi] being outside and all that.’

Hadid had previously enlisted stylist Mimi Cuttrell – who dresses her big sister Gigi, Ariana Grande, and Normani.

‘In the last year, it was really important for me to learn that even if people talk about my style or if they like it or if they don’t, it doesn’t matter, because it’s my style,’ the Kin Euphorics co-founder said.

‘When I leave the house in the morning, what I think about is: “Does this make me happy? Do I feel good in this and do I feel comfortable?”‘ 

Bella has been hard at work promoting Victoria’s Secret ‘Feel The Love’ campaign ahead of the Valentine’s Day launch.

Hadid famously walked in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows for its final three years – 2016 in Paris, 2017 in Shanghai, and 2018 in Manhattan.

The 45-year-old San Francisco bra brand is attempting a rebrand as the VS Collective after highly-publicized scandals involving VS exec Ed Razek and L Brands CEO Les Wexner.

The troubled lingerie retailer previously only employed tall, thin, long-haired models – which has become tone deaf in an industry that Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty has since diversified and innovated.