Selena Gomez shares her challenges, struggles and hopes in a new documentary exploring her experiences with anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder

Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me (Apple TV+) is a complex and beautiful documentary about a woman who has lived in the public gaze for twenty years, experiences both physical and mental ill health and who, fundamentally, wants to help others by sharing some of her most difficult experiences while still working hard to make sense of them for herself.

Spanning a period of 6 years from 2016, My Mind & Me features footage from fraught arena rehearsals, promotional tours and hard-to-watch reductive press interviews, interspersed with Selena’s own journal entries, moments of self-doubt and illness, alongside joyous meetings with friends, family and old neighbours.

My Mind & Me doesn’t sugar coat, sensationalise or shy away from the reality of Selena’s hectic life. Having been diagnosed with lupus in 2015 and subsequently undergoing a kidney transplant, she - and the people around her - have to constantly monitor her energy and pain levels to avoid further lupus flares, while simultaneously scheduling packed press trips in different continents and back to back engagements.

However, it’s her mental ill health that takes centre stage in this documentary. A crisis point for Selena, which occured in 2016, is documented through the testimony of those closest to her and afterwards by Selena herself. This episode of anxiety, depression and psychosis, they share, led to psychiatric hospitalisation and a welcome diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

The years and discoveries that follow her diagnosis, the creation of Selena’s third studio album Rare and her desire to be and do more to help others and move away from the ‘product’ she feels she could become, forms the majority of the rest of the film.

This feels like a deep dive into the nature of life with complex mental and physical health challenges as Selena questions how the past informs present day perceptions and explores the constant work it takes to live with her own mind, when it can feel like it’s working against her at times.

In sharing this, her own ever-evolving story in such a raw way, Selena will ultimately give hope, a sense of understanding and normalcy to so many people who will watch it and identify.

3 crucial mental health messages from Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me

Self-acceptance a