October 10, 2019 • hometowns
Hannah Brown Writes Openly About Her Struggles with Depression and Anxiety
Hannah Brown is continuing the conversation about mental health and how she grapples with it in a public sphere.
The Season 15 Bachelorette writes a weekly diary entry for “Bustle” about her “Dancing with the Stars” preparation, and she focused this week on “reality TV and real-life anxiety.” Hannah has been open about her depression and anxiety, and even used her platform as Miss Alabama USA to bring more attention to the disorders.
In the October 2 entry of her “Bustle” diary, Hannah expressed frustration at learning the paso doble, which she performed and aced on October 7’s episode of “DWTS.” She wrote, “I was feeling a little bit out of sorts; I was having a really sad day. For whatever reason I wanted to break down and cry. I had a lot of anxiety.” She said she was “not trying to take it personally” when her partner Alan Bersten reminded her to use more hips, but she felt “really sensitive” that day.
She wrote, “It's not really something that I think Alan deals with and understands, and I don't think I would understand it if I didn't struggle with depression and anxiety.”
The 25-year-old continued, “I've been very open about my mental health — honestly, it's a taboo thing that nobody talks about. I have to think that even though I sometimes get pissed off and mad, there has to be a reason why I've been put in this spotlight right now. My gift, and sometimes curse, is that I'm so open about my life.”
As if struggling with depression and anxiety isn’t difficult enough, dealing with television production doesn’t exactly ease the pain. “I have producers on all these shows. I know they’re doing their job, they’re trying to tell my story, but I sometimes feel like they’re trying to tell a story to make my life into a story that they want,” she expressed.
Hannah remained adamant in her article that she wants to ensure her story is told her way. “I hate being fed things to say,” she admitted. “There’s something to me that feels slimy to see my name and thoughts being given to me as sound bites. Even if they’re essentially true, I just feel like it should come from the heart. The past year has made me sensitive to my emotions being exploited and used to tell a story. I’m scared they’ll be used in a manufactured way.”
A lot of what Hannah wrote in her “Bustle” article mirrors other social media posts she’s shared as of late, especially after “The Bachelorette” ended. Hannah didn’t get to live out her happily-ever-after with Jed Wyatt that she hoped for, but she’s come to terms with that. She says she’s “totally okay on my own” and that she “will not settle.”
Hannah’s openness about her depression and anxiety aligns with a message Blake Horstmann shared on October 10, which is World Mental Health Day. Blake posted a photo of himself on Instagram and captioned it, “‘Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light.’ - Albus Dumbledore. 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”
If you’d like more information on World Mental Health Day, you can read about it here.