Dove Cameron shares crying selfies and gets candid about struggles with depression and dysphoria

Dove Cameron got candid about struggling with depression and dysphoria, a state of unease or generalized dissatisfaction with life, on Instagram.

In a vulnerable post about her mental health on Wednesday, the 26-year-old Boyfriend singer pulled back the curtain on how she is attempting to ‘unlearn self abuse and self hatred’ while trying to navigate her identity.

‘i’ve been struggling lately with the concept of self, my inner relationship to who i know myself to be and my outer perceivable self who i feel i have never known but other people seem to,’ she captioned a series of bare-faced, mirror selfies of herself crying in a black hoodie.

Mental health advocate: Dove Cameron got candid about struggling with depression and dysphoria on Instagram

She continued: ‘i’ve been covering mirrors lately. i’ve been feeling wrong in clothing that used to make me feel beautiful lately. i’ve been crying a lot lately, sometimes terrorized by my identity and image.’

‘i don’t know if i’ve ever slowed down enough to learn who i am outside of fight, flight or freeze. but the self finds ways of showing up anyway.’

The Descendants actress, who came out as bisexual during an Instagram live stream in 2020 after her fans accused her of queerbaiting, also noted that ‘sexuality and performative gender norms’ were ‘really throwing’ her ‘for a loop.’ 

Struggling: In a vulnerable post about her mental health on Wednesday, the 26-year-old actress pulled back the curtain on how she is attempting to ‘unlearn self abuse and self hatred’ while trying to navigate her identity

‘i’ve been struggling lately with the concept of self, my inner relationship to who i know myself to be and my outer perceivable self who i feel i have never known but other people seem to,’ she captioned a series of crying selfies

Additionally, she says social media, mirrors and ‘constant broadcasting of self and visibility’ is ‘not optimal for mental health.’ 

The Emmy Award winner explained her reason for sharing her journey was so none of her followers ‘feel alone in a sea of what seems like humans who are comfortable in their identity, like they may not even have to think twice about it.’

‘We all deserve a life unburdened by the societally created identity, we all deserve to unlearn self abuse and self hatred. i am on the journey now, and i’m sharing so that we may all feel more comfortable in a conversation that may be confusing.’ 

Anxious: She continued: ‘i’ve been covering mirrors lately. i’ve been feeling wrong in clothing that used to make me feel beautiful lately. i’ve been crying a lot lately, sometimes terrorized by my identity and image’

‘i don’t know if i’ve ever slowed down enough to learn who i am outside of fight, flight or freeze. but the self finds ways of showing up anyway’

’emotion is COOL, dysphoria is OK. living as a human is INTENSE. we are all holding hands. don’t forget.’ 

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For years, Cameron, whose father died by suicide when she was just 15,  has been open about being depressed ‘long before’ she found fame. 

‘I’m so open and so fragile that I feel like the world just permeates me all the time and that results in anxiety and depression and confusion and loneliness and ups and downs,’ she told ET back in 2020. 

Finding herself: The Descendants actress, who came out as bisexual during an Instagram live stream in 2020 after her fans accused her of queerbaiting, also noted that ‘sexuality and performative gender norms’ were ‘really throwing ‘ her for a loop

Brave: The Emmy Award winner explained her reason for sharing her journey was so none of her followers ‘feel alone in a sea of what seems like humans who are comfortable in their identity, like they may not even have to think twice about it’ 

One moment she will feel safe and the next she will feel like she needs to move away and ‘never talk to anyone ever again.’

The performer admitted her ‘clean image’ as a teen provided her with a way of protecting herself. 

‘I have to regulate myself and pay attention to that, so I developed a clean image that felt protective,’ she recalled. ‘It felt like, if I’m going to have no one be mad at me and never get in trouble or step on anyone’s toes.’ 

‘We all deserve a life unburdened by the societally created identity, we all deserve to unlearn self abuse and self hatred. I am on the journey now, an di’m sharing so that we may all feel more comfortable in a conversation that may be confusing’ (pictured over the weekend at the BMA Awards

However, Dove said hiding her real personality and navigating ‘incredibly toxic’ celebrity culture made her feel pressured not to be seen as a ‘bad girl’, but she’s now changed her outlook.

She said: ‘I think this culture is so insidious for what is allowed for a woman, especially a developing young woman.

‘I wanted my boyfriend to think I was, like, good and beautiful and pure and that I wasn’t a bad girl, because bad girls get punished.

‘As I’ve gotten older, I’m like, f**k it. It took me a long time to stop feeling so bad about myself [and like] I needed the approval of everybody, and to start being like, ‘I only care about my own approval.”

The Remember Me hitmaker, however, confessed that sometimes she finds herself crying so much, she ‘makes [herself] sick.’ 

Open book: For years, Cameron, whose father died by suicide when she was just 15, has been open about being depressed ‘long before’ she found fame; seen in 2020

In 2019, she she had to grieve the loss of her costar and best friend Cameron, who died unexpectedly from a seizure at 20.

‘To be completely honest, I wake up and it’s the first thing on my mind. It’s constantly in the back of my mind in everything I do. I have to kind of be like, okay, nothing crazy is going to happen today,’ she told Puss Puss Magazine of her pal’s passing.

She added: ‘Like, the other shoes not about to drop, because a big sort of results of chronic trauma and chronic PTSD is that you always think that whatever has happened in the past is about to happen again at any given moment. So I kind of have to get myself out of that space daily by just doing stuff.’