When was Selena Gomez diagnosed with Lupus? Apple TV + documentary to revisit pop icon's challenging phase

It was 2013 when Selena Gomez released a single, Come & Get It, to a thumping response. Instead of basking in the success, at home, the then 20-year-old was fighting a painful autoimmune disease called lupus.

A few years later, she underwent a kidney transplant and also struggled with anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. The pressure to maintain her celebrity status became overwhelming for Gomez, forcing her to go on a social media hiatus. In 2020, the Texas-born star revealed that she suffers from bipolar disorder.

Apple TV+ is set to show all of these via a “uniquely raw and intimate documentary” titled Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, releasing on Friday, November 4, 2022.

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Selena Gomez and her fight with lupus

As per reports, the Grammy Award nominee was diagnosed with lupus around 2012-2014 due to which she had to take a break from music and other professional commitments.

Selena Gomez in Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me. (Image via Apple.com)

Lupus, triggered by stress, is an inflammatory disease where a person’s immune system attacks its organs and tissues. Consequently, kidneys, blood cells, joints, skin, brain, heart, and lungs get affected. It is treatable but cannot be cured.

Gomez had to undergo a kidney transplant in 2017 because of the ailment. However, her ordeal wasn’t over yet. At one point in the transplant, her artery burst and doctors had to conduct a six-hour-long surgery on her, which could have been fatal.

Thankfully, she limped back to her normal life, only to get attacked by lupus again during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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What to expect from Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me?

The trailer, dropped last month on World Mental Health Day, prepares us to witness Gomez in her most vulnerable state. The documentary will probably showcase her childhood, teenage years, rise to fame, stardom and her struggles with health.

Scenes where she expresses her being “not good enough” for a venture stand out as you really don’t expect a top artist like her to feel so diffident.

However, Gomez emphasizes that she is “grateful to be alive,” as sequences of her swollen and puffy face, non-made-up face, and her breaking down while receiving treatment for lupus play out. We understand that this is that unexpected turn in the crooner’s life that pulled her into darkness.

After this depressing premise, we observe how the Only Murders in the Building star rises like a phoenix and embraces her life.

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Director’s and Gomez’s take on Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me

The documentary film is directed by Madonna: Truth or Dare director Alek Keshishian. It will be about Gomez’s career spanning six years, starting in 2015.

Speaking about the film, Keshishian said:

“I had no interest in making a traditional pop doc. I wanted to show something more authentic and Selena did, too. She has a raw vulnerability that captured me.”

Selena Gomez with filmmaker Alek Keshishian discussing a scene of Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me. (Image via Apple.com)

While talking to a publication, the singer highlighted that this tough phase has only made her better.

She said that she reminds herself that she wouldn't have been where she was had it not been for the "psychotic break, lupus" and her diagnosis. The 30-year-old added that she believes she would have been "another annoying entity that just wants to wear nice clothes all the time."

The Wizards of Waverly Place star notes:

“I’m depressed thinking about who I would be.”

The multi-hyphenate added that she doesn’t know what people expect from the documentary. However, even her critics might appreciate Gomez for having the guts to put the weakest part of her life on TV in this naked manner.