Little Mix’s Jesy Nelson Says 'It's Ok To Talk About How You Feel' As She Gets Real About Mental Health In TV Interview
21 May 2020, 15:40
Little Mix’s Jesy Nelson has been very open about her struggles with mental health.
Jesy Nelson has opened up about her experiences with mental health in a Loose Women interview.
The Little Mix singer, who starred in the award winning documentary Odd One Out last year, said she kept the fact she was suffering a ‘secret’ for ‘such a long time’ but once she opened up she began to feel ‘so much better’.
Jesy Nelson’s 'Odd One Out' Documentary Praised For ‘Changing Lives’
Jesy Nelson annouces Mental Health Film With BBC.mp4
She said: "I honestly feel as though I was just carrying this huge weight around on my shoulders, and for such a long time it was such a big secret.
"Obviously only the girls knew and people I worked with, and then I thought as soon as I'd done [the documentary] it felt like a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
"I think there's such a stigma that comes with mental health that a lot of people are ashamed to talk about how they really feel, and a lot of people are scared to let people know they're struggling and that's how I felt for such a long time.
"What I actually learnt that by doing that documentary and, now that everyone knows, it's actually okay to talk about how you feel and it makes you feel so much better."
Jesy was left feeling suicidal in the early days of Little Mix due to relentless online trolling about her appearance and admitted the experience turned her into ‘a completely different person’.
She said: “I feel as though because it was 2011, we'd only just got Twitter, I don't know if Instagram was even around then, and I don't think I had Facebook back then, so it was all just really new to all of us and I just wasn't used to people being able to have an opinion on me and just say whatever they wanted.
"Eventually it literally consumed me and I became a completely different person and I genuinely believed every single thing that was written about me and I was just obsessed.
"I would wake up at six o'clock in the morning for work and instead of going to brush my teeth, the first thing I would do was type the worst things about myself on Twitter.
"The only way I can describe it is I was kind of trying to train my brain into getting used to seeing these things about me so it wouldn't hurt as much."
Thankfully Jesy is in a much better place now and we’re so proud of her for speaking out.
If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, contact The Samaritans at samaritans.org or call on 116 123.
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