Lo Bosworth Opens Up About Battling "Crippling Anxiety and Depression"
By Christopher Rosa. Photos: Getty Images.
Living with depression and anxiety can be a very isolating experience, but Lo Bosworth just did something that's going to make so many people feel less alone. The Hills alumna—who, on the outside, appears to have a very picturesque life—recently revealed that she battled "crippling anxiety and depression" for over a year.
Bosworth opened up about her mental health struggles in a new, very compelling essay on her website. The entrepreneur and former reality TV star wrote that 2016 was her "worst year ever" because she starting experiencing very intense anxiety and depression—and she didn't know why. However, after taking a blood test, she realized the root of her depression was a "severe vitamin deficiency that went undiscovered for 16 months."
This happened after months of trial and error with various anti-depressants, though. "The anti-depressant cycle is a vicious one – especially if you don’t actually require one, but that moment of enlightenment won’t arrive for another 9 months," Bosworth wrote. "Up and down, up and down. Tears, moments of extreme highs, confusion about why you don’t feel completely back on your feet after the standard 4-6 weeks of allowing the meds to 'kick in.'"
Bosworth tried switching anti-depressants "more than 4 times," but she still felt "in disarray." It wasn't until that blood test, which Bosworth called "complex," that she learned about her "severe deficiencies of Vitamins B12 and Vitamin D," which can cause "depression, anxiety, fatigue, headaches, dizziness." (In other words, almost everything Bosworth was feeling.)
With this knowledge, Bosworth began taking steps to get better. She wrote that her deficiencies can be handled by "taking the highest quality, most bio-available methylated form[s] of [B12 and Vitamin D] every single day," so that's where she began.
"For the few first weeks, I routinely stabbed myself in the stomach with needles full of prescription liquid B12," Bosworth wrote. "A kick-ass probiotic helps too. I always kind of scoffed at people who gulped down 30 vitamins a day, thinking of them as snake oil pills, and fools for being suckered by the vitamin industry, but...man, this shit works."
Six months after following this strict routine, the Love Wellness founder said she started feeling like her normal self, which is a testament that depression and anxiety can be handled with the proper treatment—no matter what treatment that is.
And that's exactly what Bosworth wants you to do if you're experiencing depression and anxiety. "I’m living proof that you should fight, you should explore, you should take your health into your own hands and be your own advocate, and that you CAN come out the other side with some serious scars, but feeling like a brand new human being," she wrote.
This is a powerful message. There are so many stigmas around mental health that prevent us from getting the treatment we need—but there is no shame in asking for help. I repeat: No. Shame. If more of us speak up about our issues, like Lo Bosworth bravely did in this essay, then maybe people will find the courage to take control of their mental health. We all deserve to be at peace.
This story originally appeared on Glamour.
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