IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Selena Gomez: Depression and anxiety are 'not something I feel I'll ever overcome'

The actress-singer opened up about her battles with depression and anxiety in a new interview with Harper's Bazaar magazine.
/ Source: TODAY

Though Selena Gomez usually doesn’t set goals for herself, she is making sure her top priority this year is to focus on her well-being.

“I’ve had a lot of issues with depression and anxiety, and I’ve been very vocal about it, but it’s not something I feel I’ll ever overcome,” Gomez, 25, explained to “13 Reasons Why” star Katherine Langford in the March issue of Harper’s Bazaar.

In 2015, the actress-singer revealed she had been diagnosed with and underwent treatment for lupus. Since then, she’s taken time off to deal with anxiety, panic attacks and depression. Last September, she shared in an emotional Instagram post that she underwent a kidney transplant.

After several challenging years, Gomez is taking the long view when it comes to her health.

“There won’t be a day when I’m like, ‘Here I am in a pretty dress — I won!’” she said. “I think it’s a battle I’m gonna have to face for the rest of my life, and I’m okay with that because I know that I’m choosing myself over anything else.

“I’m starting my year off with that thought. I want to make sure I’m healthy. If that’s good, everything else will fall into place.”

“Everything else” may include new music from the talented entertainer, who last released an album in 2015.

“I don’t really set goals ’cause I don’t want to be disappointed if I don’t reach them, but I do want to work on my music too,” said Gomez. “My next album has been forever in the making. When people ask me why, I’m honest about it: It’s because I haven’t been ready. I mean, point-blank, I don’t feel confident enough in where my music is yet. If that takes 10 years, then it takes 10 years. I don’t care. Right now I just want to be super intentional with all of the things I’m doing.”

When you’re the most-followed celebrity on Instagram, as Gomez is, it’s hard to fly under the radar. She loves that she can keep her 133 million followers up to date on her life through Instagram, but she admits she has a “complex relationship” with the photo-sharing service.

“It has given me a voice amid all the noise of people trying to narrate my life for me and allows me to say, ‘Hey, I’m gonna post this, and this is gonna take care of the 1,200 stories that people think are interesting but actually aren’t, and aren’t even true,’” she said. “So it empowers me in that way because it’s my words and my voice and my truth. The only thing that worries me is how much value people our age place on social media. It’s an incredible platform, but in a lot of ways it’s given young people, myself included, a false representation of what’s important.”

You can read more of Gomez’s interview in Harper Bazaar’s March issue, on newsstands Feb. 20.