Selena Gomez dealt with ‘a bit of depression’ amid onset of coronavirus pandemic and shutdown

Selena Gomez says she dealt with ‘a bit of depression’ amid the onset of coronavirus pandemic and shutdown.

The 28-year-old singer spoke on Instagram Live with Dr. Vivek Murthy, who served as Surgeon General from 2014 until 2017, on the Instagram page for her new Sephora makeup line Rare Beauty, to mark World Mental Health Day on Saturday.

‘In the beginning, I couldn’t deal with it that well. I kind of went into a bit of a depression,’ the entertainer said. ‘My job is a lot of travel, connecting with people, making people happy, and that makes me happy, so it has been a struggle.’

The pop star said that things have gradually improved as she’s focused on her work and had a strong support network intact.

‘I went into a place where I was writing and being active; it forced me to have that time,’ she said. ‘I’ve been able to spend time with those quality people a lot more than I ever have, and I’m spending a lot more time with my family.’

Gomez said that seeing her projects come together and returning to recording have helped ease her strain amid the tough times.

‘Slowly, towards the end … things I’m doing are coming out, and that was extremely exciting for me … and recently, I’ve been able to go to the studio,’ she said. 

She continued: ‘So I would say right now, I’m fully coming out again and I just think I had to handle it the way I needed to handle it, and I got through it with the right people and doing the right things and doing the right steps to not make me go crazy.’

The Texas native said that she’s using her platform to forward mental health funding: ‘I’ve worked on personal things like a beauty line that has a goal of reaching $100 million in 10 years for mental health.’

Dr. Murthy said that ‘high rates of loneliness and depression and anxiety’ have made things ‘worse for people in this pandemic,’ which has seen stay at home orders, workplaces going remote or shutting down.