To the outside world, Bella Hadid is one of the world’s most successful, beautiful and beloved celebrities, living a charmed life wherein she travels the world constantly walking runways and fronting campaigns.
But in a rare candid post the supermodel is reminding us to never judge a book by its cover: despite putting on a brave and “happy” face, she’s been struggling with severe physical and mental health problems since she was a teen due to the Lyme disease diagnosis she got in 2012, alongside her mom, Yolanda, and younger brother, Anwar.
In a TikTok video, Hadid explained that a recent tooth infection caused her Lyme disease to flare up and that she’s been quietly trying to get back to feeling well over recent weeks, urging her followers to make sure they stay on top of their health.
“There was a low-grade infection underneath the tooth, NEXT to the tooth I thought was suffering (she’s good) which is the one I got a root canal on a year ago,” Hadid explained in the clip. “It continued to spread down, causing a low grade infection in my jaw. I have felt in my heart for months that I needed this tooth out, to heal the rest, and if not, it was going to take me out!”
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“Please listen to your bodies my friends please!!!” she continued. “This made my Lyme flare up, which means the Lyme is attacking the places that are suffering ie tooth, jaw, guy, brain, spine, bones etc oh, and the entire nervous system.”
Hadid went on to explain that any minor distress can cause her Lyme disease to worsen. “Any minor trauma to the body whether it’s physically or mentally can cause Lyme to flare up,” her caption continued. “My jaw has been so inflamed, and would flare up/inflame randomly when I was/am overly stressed or over working. Some days it’s okay! And some days are difficult. But when my jaw/nerves started to hurt on an aggressive level; it just went 0-100. And now we’re here!”
“I am okay though,” she noted. “I feel better when I’m riding. (And after starting 2 rounds of antibiotics) (that in itself is a wild ride) I think my horses just really take my mind off the pain.”
After getting her tooth extracted, Hadid gave fans a further update in which she showed off the culprit before getting candid about her health issues. Listing out a slew side effects, Hadid wrote: “crying in the shower, pain parallel to my spine on both sides, shoulder blades and meridian track and going batsh**t emotionally.”
Replying to one user who wrote “Also sick since my teens, it stole everything, thanks for opening up I find it so hard to talk about it too,” Hadid wrote, “lots of anxiety comes from feeling like I missed out on so much from being sick & depressed constantly, so young, while trying to put on a ‘happy face.'”
