Cara Delevingne has opened up about her battle with mental health, explaining the struggle she went through in trying to overcome her depression. The model-turned-actress, 25, revealed she sought help after a breakdown when she was 15. In a candid interview with Net A Porter's The Edit, she shared: "I felt alienated and alone, because I was like, what's wrong with me? I always wanted people to love me, so I never got angry with them; I turned my anger onto myself."
© Photo: Getty ImagesCara gets real about mental health
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"I hated myself for being depressed, I hated feeling depressed, I hated feeling," she added. "I was very good at disassociating from emotion completely. And all the time I was second-guessing myself, saying something and then hating myself for saying it. I didn't understand what was happening apart from the fact that I didn't want to be alive anymore." Despite the struggle, Cara has since learnt to channel her negative energy into something that makes her happy. "I know it sounds really stupid, but I relied too much on love, too much on other people to make me happy, and I needed to learn to be happy by myself," she explained. "So now I can be by myself, I can be happy. It took me a long time."
Last year, Cara wrote an open letter published in Motto in which she revealed she was taking a break from modelling as she "felt like [she] needed validation from everyone." She said: "I worked hard to be accepted by the fashion community in ways beyond my physical appearance. In no time, though, I found myself surrendering to the industry’s approval process... As a result, I lost sight of myself and what it meant to be happy, what it meant to be successful. I think it all stemmed from a deep-down feeling of wanting people to like me and love me."
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Since putting her modelling carerr on the back burner, Cara's acting has been going from strength to strength. The Paper Towns star will appear in two films next year: Life in a Year, alongside Jaden Smith, and Fever Heart, which also stars Alexander Skarsgård. She will also join Orlando Bloom in Amazon's eight-episode series Carnival Row streaming in 2019.
