October 10, 2019
Blake Horstmann Shares an Important Message on World Mental Health Day
Blake Horstmann is sharing a meaningful message on October 10, World Mental Health Day.
The “Bachelor in Paradise” alumnus posted a photo on Instagram honoring the day. In the picture, Blake stands in front of a large mural of a man wearing a shirt that says, “Be a Good Person.” Blake essentially matched the subject in the artwork by wearing a black shirt and jeans.
The 30-year-old quoted a beloved “Harry Potter” character in his caption. It read: “‘Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light.’ - Albus Dumbledore”
His caption continued, “Today is World Mental Health Day, this is a reminder to be that light another may need in their time of dark #worldmentalhealthday #beagoodperson #bekind”
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Blake has spoken openly in the past about mental health and how it pertains to his experiences on “Paradise.” The Colorado native faced an onslaught of criticism and negativity during the season, especially when he released text messages from Caelynn Miller-Keyes about their time at Stagecoach.
He discussed the overlaps of mental health and being on television at great length during two emotional and powerful “Bachelor Happy Hour” episodes. Blake admitted that he had “a complete breakdown” when he decided to publish Caelynn’s text messages, and was even “breathing into a paper bag.”
At one point during his interview with Rachel Lindsay and Ali Fedotowsky-Manno, Blake said he was not “quite ready to talk about just how low and dark it got,” but he did share some details about his difficult times after the show.
He said, “Coming off of Becca [Kufrin]’s season, I didn’t get too much hate. Then, to suddenly get as much as I did right away, it was really hard.”
Blake added at another point, “Right when I got back from the show, before it even started, I was already starting to go into that deep hole of where I just didn’t want to leave my apartment because there were so many people out there that I had disappointed.”
During the second of his two-part interview with Rachel and Ali, the three talked about facing hate online — including death threats. Rachel said, “The way people talk to us, it is ripping our character apart. It is questioning who we are as people. It is death threats. It’s talking about our family at times.”
Blake responded, “When your family gets involved, it changed everything for me. Lots of death threats.”
Not even Blake’s grandma was immune from receiving messages about his actions on and off the show.
Rachel said, “People forget we are real. We’re real people, this is our real life, and these are real stories. You may not agree with every single thing that we do, but just because we’ve put our lives for the public to see and we decided to be vulnerable and open, it doesn’t give you the excuse to rip us apart.”
If you’d like more information on World Mental Health Day, you can read about it here.