Dove Cameron is baring it all.
In a teary-eyed Instagram post, the Descendants actress details her struggles with self-identity and depression.
“I hold a deep seeded belief that who I am is wrong, I am not allowed to be just as I am, I am not meant to be here,” she wrote in the May 18 post. “I feel I must be something else if I am going to be allowed to be here.”
She captioned the post: “identity vs the self!!! Depression & dysphoria”
Cameron, 26, went on to say she’s been covering up mirrors lately, describing the clothes that used to make her feel beautiful, now have the opposite effect.
“I’ve been crying a lot lately, sometimes terrorized by my identity and image, sometimes in absolute flow with something new and peripheral and joyous to me.”
The actress explains she’s not sure if she’s actually found out who she is as a person. That’s the quest she’s currently on.
She says societal norms, social media, and the “constant broadcasting of self” is really “throwing [her] for a loop.”
“I don’t know if I’ve ever slowed down enough to learn who I am outside of fight, flight or freeze,” the actress wrote. “But the self finds ways of showing up anyway, trickling in enough to hint at who we might be if we didn’t feel we had to be everything but the self.”
In May of last year, Cameron came out as queer, announcing that she wanted to live her truth. It seems, she’s continuing to do that by being once again raw and vulnerable with her fans.
She hopes that going public on social media will have a different effect on her than it has recently. One that is helpful, encourages change and makes others feel less alone.
“We all deserve a life unburned by the societally created identity, we all deserve to unlearn self abuse and self hatred. I am on the journey now, and I am sharing so that we may all feel more comfortable in conversation that may be confusing, and we may navigate something that feels difficult to put into words, together. Human, first. The rest is all the rest,” she signed off.
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See her full Instagram post below:
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If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or thoughts of suicide, please call 1-800- 273-8255.