Selena Gomez has been honored with the prestigious Morton E. Ruderman Award for her work in mental health advocacy.
The 30-year-old has made no secret of her personal mental health struggles and has frequently opened up about her issues.
In 2016, Selena first took a break to deal with anxiety, panic attacks, and depression stemming from her battle with lupus.
Since then, the Disney Channel alum has continued to educate young people about the importance of prioritizing their mental health.
On Monday (November 14), the Boston-based Ruderman Family Foundation honored Selena with its annual Morton E Ruderman Award in Inclusion.
The brunette beauty was honored for her work in raising awareness and changing the narrative surrounding mental healthcare.
Selena Gomez honored for commitment to mental health awareness
In a statement, Gomez spoke about the honor of receiving the award but also spoke about the impact mental health has on everyone, and she urged her fans to get involved in ensuring everybody can have access to mental health care.
She said, “I hope by sharing my own story and using my platform, we can empower each other and more young people to address mental health.”
Selena added that she is aware of the stigma associated with mental health, and this is something she says she wants to change, particularly in the case of younger people.
As The Hollywood Reporter reports, Jay Ruderman, President of the Ruderman Family Foundation, said Selena “powerfully embodies our Foundation’s mission in the mental health arena.”
“A mission which continues to take on greater importance amid today’s unprecedented mental health crisis for teens, young adults, and the entire population.”
Selena Gomez’s My Mind & Me documentary
Selena’s honor follows the recent release of her Apple TV+ documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me.
The documentary follows Selena’s life for six years, including when she entered a psychiatric facility due to suffering from psychosis before later undergoing a second stint after being diagnosed with bipolar.
It also follows her during her kidney transplant, which was caused by the auto-immune disease lupus, as well as her on-off relationship with Justin Bieber coming to an official end.
One particularly devastating time in her life was marked by an episode of psychosis in 2018, something she opened up about in an interview with Rolling Stone.
The Grammy nominee revealed how she heard voices and experienced severe long-term paranoia during the episode – and was eventually diagnosed as bipolar.
“It took a lot of hard work for me to (a) accept that I was bipolar, but (b) learn how to deal with it because it wasn’t going to go away,” she said.