Bella Hadid Opens up about eight-year battle with Her ‘Invisible’ Illness, Lyme Disease and its aggressive symptoms

Bella Hadid is being really brave and using her platform to spread awareness about Lyme disease and her battle with it.

What it’s like battling the ‘Invisible’ Illness on a daily basis

On Tuesday, the 23-year-old model explained what it was like battling the ‘Invisible’ Illness on a daily basis, through a detailed series of posts on her Instagram Stories. Hadid re-posted diagrams and info graphics about Lyme disease shared by chef Joudie Kalla’s Palestine on a Plate Instagram account. The screenshots dissected the symptoms suffered by those living with “the invisible disease.”

Hadid, on one slide, drew arrows to point out nearly 30 common symptoms she faces. Including headaches, brain fog, insomnia, and a sensitivity to light and noise. She also flagged anxiety, confusion, nausea, disordered eating, joint pain, and weight gain and loss as affecting her too.

“Every day I feel at least 10 of these attributes without fail … since I was probably 14, but more aggressively when I turned 18,” wrote Hadid.

“Sometimes you just want to drown and other days you feel like a superhero”

Hadid also shared a screenshot of Kalla’s post about the frustrations of coping with Lyme disease. Calling it a “constant minefield that keeps on giving.” Kalla added, “Sometimes you just want to drown and other days you feel like a superhero. What I know now is to take each day as it comes and try my best.”

Back in 2015, the model spoke in an interview where she opened up on the immediate difficulties she experienced when she ‘first got sick.’

Hadid recalled, ‘It affected my memory so I suddenly wouldn’t remember how to drive to Santa Monica from Malibu where I lived. I couldn’t ride. She added, I was just too sick. And I had to sell my horse because I couldn’t take care of it.’

“If I’d had the chance to succeed in riding, I might not have modeled”

Bella said that she had visions of competitive horseback riding prior to falling ill with the disease. ‘If I’d had the chance to succeed in riding, I might not have modeled,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know that I was going to get sick.’

Earlier In 2016, when Hadid was 20, the star elaborated in an interview about the reality of struggling with Lyme disease while working as a model. “Life isn’t always what it looks like on the outside. And the hardest part of this journey is to be judged by the way you look instead of the way you feel.” she said at the time.

“There are a lot of symptoms that you can’t see from the outside but bring you to your knees on the inside”

Bella also isn’t the only one in her famous family who has been diagnosed with Lyme Disease. During a 2015 speech at the Global Lyme Alliance gala in New York, Yolanda Hadid shared that she and Anwar Hadid were both diagnosed in 2012. They have previously been open about their battles with the condition. At the 2016 Global Lyme Alliance gala event, the former model and TV personality revealed that the severe symptoms can sometimes “bring you to your knees.”

“There are rough days when you sleep 12 hours. You wake up at 11 and you can’t get out of bed, with severe joint pain, brain fog, anxiety. There are a lot of symptoms that you can’t see from the outside but bring you to your knees on the inside,” said Yolanda, now 56. “You can never get rested, that’s the best way to explain it,” Yolanda added at the time. “… Life goes on and you try to keep going. Especially with the younger generations, they have to keep pushing.”

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum detailed her battle with Lyme Disease on the Bravo show. And in her book, Believe Me: My Battle with the Invisible Disability of Lyme Disease. She and her children have continued to raise awareness about the illness.

A few other popular celebrities who are battling Lyme disease include Justin Bieber, Alec Baldwin, Shania Twain, Kelly Osbourne and Ben Stiller.