Bella Hadid is an International Supermodel with a major following and influence, she's a multi-millionaire, the life many can only dream of, at the young age of 25 years old. What more could a girl want? It's the life we all dream about.... so what could be missing?
Like many of us, she was missing mental health and wellness. At the young age of 25, she is redefining her relationship with alcohol after discovering the affects it was having on her brain and mental health.
After reading her article in InStyle Magazine, I am a fan of her honesty. She has won me over. I applaud those who use their influence to help others who look up to them. The Victoria’s Secret model quit drinking six months ago, sharing that her relationship with alcohol had gotten out of hand. She was open and honest, she is now sober.
Bella Hadid on her sobriety journey:
The model opened up about the "work" that she had done on herself to identify her "traumas, triggers, joys, and routine" in an Instagram post about mental health in November 2021. She shared on the podcast that these realizations took place during a time when she stepped away from her career and focused on herself.
"I lost joy completely. It's a bizarre place to be in because ... there's nothing wrong in my life," she said. "I always wanted to make everyone proud, work as hard as I could, be kind, do these things — and I did check those things off of the list. I realized there was a whole other list I wasn't looking at."
Bella now credits therapy as one of the most helpful tools that she turned to in order to better herself, adding that it eventually inspired other family members to seek out therapy themselves. "I grew up in a very Arab and European family that therapy was not a thing, and I was the first one in my family to go to therapy,"she continued "That was a big step forward that progressed kind of my whole family's chance of healing because everyone followed, which was really enlightening for me to see how that domino effect affected our family."
"It really got to a point and a place where I looked at everything that I had done over the past 8 years. I had the most September covers of anybody in history, these accolades that I had picked up on the way, I never even realized that they happened. I never was able to pat myself on the back and say, 'Wow, you really did work hard.' It was always me and this like dark hole of autopilot just trying to make it through," she explained. "There was no substance to me because I had given all that I had to my career and the people in my life and the people in my career who essentially couldn't fix anything for me except for maybe a call or two every week. But I realized I had to fix that for myself."
She also focused on "staying off of social media" and practicing meditation.
"It sounds very cliché but to not have the energy of everyone else and their projections being projected back onto you is one of the most powerful things of all time," she said of taking time away from social media. "This is the first year I took time away and I had never done that before, so it was a big experience for me to be able to make the time for myself and kind of experience life without the material and the cameras and the lifestyle that I had been living for so many years that didn't feel true to me. And once I was able to be at a place and take the time for myself and see myself through others' eyes that wasn't just the world's vision of what I was supposed to be, it was really interesting and it was really a lot of clarity for me to really see myself again."
The Kin Euphorics cofounder reveals that seeing scans of her brain and alcohol’s negative effects gave her the push she needed to go sober in the interest of her mental health, adding that it became “a lot harder to pick up the glass.”
She shares, “I don’t feel the need [to drink anymore] because I know how it will affect me at 3 in the morning when I wake up with horrible anxiety thinking about that one thing I said five years ago when I graduated high school. There’s just this never-ending effect of, essentially, you know, pain and stress over those few drinks that didn’t really do much, you know?”
The Takeaway?
She recognized her struggle with mental health and after dealing with it and nothing changed, she removed alcohol and sleeping aids. The result? Life changing.
She realized, she had to to help herself.
Although her family didn't believe in therapy, she knew she had to do something. After getting therapy herself, she paved the way for her family to also reach out and seek help for their mental health as well. She had an amazing impact on her whole family, solely by paving the way. When your family or friends see you changed, they notice. And you may just give them the courage to seek help if they're struggling.
Bella had a brain scan done, she saw first hand the affect that alcohol was having on her brain. Now she says she can no longer even think about drinking.
She took a step back from social media, so she could live more authentically and rediscover herself.
For therapy, she went through her traumas, triggers, joy and routine to ultimately get in a better mental state. In order to get better, we have to go into the past and heal from our traumas, resentments that our body is still holding onto, so we may heal and change our thinking.
Her life looks picture perfect, no one would've known what she has been silently battling this, until she spoke up. Never judge a book by its cover, you never know what silent battles others are going through.
You can have the world, and still need to take care of your mental health. Sometimes that means redefining your relationship with alcohol/substances.
Sometimes you have to step away from work and work on yourself.
Sometimes you have to step away from friendships to work on yourself.
By speaking up on your own sobriety/wellness journey, you can inspire others to do the same.