According to multiple reports, the 24-year-old singer has been seeking aid amid her battle with depression, and has checked into a facility in Tennessee after announcing she was taking a break from the spotlight in August. Along with the treatment, she is seeking help with how to properly deal with the health issues related to her lupus diagnosis.
Gomez’s rep has not responded to our request for comment.
A source told Us Weekly, “Selena is dealing with lupus, but this break is to focus on her mental health. She can go to a very dark place.” The insider said the facility is just outside of Nashville and is a “private and quiet place,” but “super intense.”
Selena actually resurfaced in Tennessee over the weekend for the first time since August. Multiple eyewitnesses confirmed to E! News that the singer stopped by the Texas Roadhouse in Alcoa on Saturday for an afternoon meal.
“She enjoyed herself and was there for a late lunch,” one eyewitness shared with us. “She couldn’t have been more gracious to everyone and to the fans and was more than happy to take pictures with whoever.”
At the end of August, Gomez announced she would be taking a break from the spotlight for a little while to focus on herself and her health. In a statement given to E! News, the singer revealed she was suffering from some “side effects of lupus” like “anxiety, panic attacks and depression,” which she wants to face head-o
Gomez thanked her fans for their support and understanding about her break explaining, “I want to be proactive and focus on maintaining my health and happiness and have decided that the best way forward is to take some time off.”
She continued, “You know how special you are to me, but I need to face this head on to ensure I am doing everything possible to be my best.”
Overall, Gomez hopes that coming forward about her struggle with help others do the same. “I know I am not alone by sharing this,” she concluded her statement. “I hope others will be encouraged to address their own issues.”
The “Come and Get It” singer first revealed her lupus diagnosis in an interview with Billboard last October.
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
“I was diagnosed with lupus, and I’ve been through chemotherapy. That’s what my break was really about. I could’ve had a stroke,” Gomez told the magazine of her time away from the spotlight in 2014, which caused quite a bit of speculation. “I wanted so badly to say, ‘You guys have no idea. I’m in chemotherapy. You’re assholes,'” she recalled. “I locked myself away until I was confident and comfortable again.”
Gomez later admitted she spent time in rehab to work on herself.
“First off, this is something that everyone always wants to fixate on. I got diagnosed with lupus. My mom had a very public miscarriage. So I had to cancel my tour. I needed time to just be okay,” she told GQ magazinein April, adding, “and I was going through leukemia” (though she most likely meant chemotherapy for her diagnosis).
“I went to two different locations for those treatments. It’s really frustrating, because I am 100 percent allowed to have that,” she said. “I just have to be patient. It’s slowly dissolving the older I get. And I just have to be patient and make great things with quality, from producing to singing to acting.”
She continued, “One by one, I will be able to change the dialogue, and people won’t care about everything that’s happened to me.”
