Selena Gomez is pulling back the curtain on her mental health struggles with raw honesty that hits close to home. The star shared how early misdiagnoses complicated her path to understanding her bipolar disorder. Her words remind us all how messy and personal the journey to the right help can feel.Selena Gomez appeared on the March 3, 2026, episode of the Friends Keep Secrets podcast alongside her husband, Benny Blanco. The 33-year-old singer and actress reflected on sensing something off long before her official diagnosis. “I knew something was wrong, but I think I was misdiagnosed,” Gomez said on the podcast. “People were just assuming, and I would try multiple therapists. And that’s why it’s hard. It’s actually really hard when we’re talking about these things. And for me to go get a therapist, all of it is so f—ing complicated.” She described bouncing between “multiple different people” for diagnosis and treatment, stressing the key takeaway. “You can’t just give up,” Gomez emphasized.
Four rehabs and hard-won clarity
Selena Gomez revealed she entered four different rehabs during her search for answers. Benny Blanco, 37, who married Gomez in September 2025, explained her ongoing challenges. “She’ll start to realize she’s having it after it’s happening, and sometimes she doesn’t even remember when it’s happening,” Blanco said of her manic episodes. “It’s such a delicate thing because you’re not supposed to technically talk to that person about it while they’re deep in it. And it’s like, even dating her and she’s so hyperaware, she’ll be like, ‘I think I’m feeling a little manic.’” This awareness has grown over time, letting Gomez live more freely now.Her openness builds on past shares, like her 2022 documentary My Mind & Me. There, Selena Gomez detailed a 2018 psychotic episode that led to her bipolar diagnosis after hospital stays. She spoke to Rolling Stone about early twenties darkness. “I think when I started hitting my early twenties is when it started to get really dark, when I started to feel like I was not in control of what I was feeling, whether that was really great or really bad,” she told the magazine.
Embracing understanding over shame
Selena Gomez now sees therapy and diagnosis as liberators from misconception. “That’s the problem with misconception,” she said on the podcast. “The whole hypocrisy of shaming people for therapy or people not understanding it is that it’s just not for you. That’s completely fine, but for me, it finally allowed me to go, ‘Oh, that’s why I handled things the way I handled it. That’s why all the other people were able to get over things so quickly and I wasn’t.’” She reflected on past reactions driven by fear, love, or passion. “It was all inconsistent, it was crazy,” Gomez added.Through ‘Only Murders in the Building’ and her Rare Impact Fund, Selena Gomez turns pain into purpose. Benny Blanco’s support highlights partnership in mental health.
