Entertainment
Nessa Barrett appears in a YouTube video on her channel.

Nessa Barrett Opened Up About Her Bipolar Disorder & Online Bullying

by Brandy Robidoux
YouTube

Nessa Barrett's rise to TikTok fame happened at lightning speed, and with that came a lot of public scrutiny. While many of her followers hype up her posts with positivity, there's always a portion negative comments sprinkled in. In a new interview, Barrett got candid about the effect the app has had on her mental health, in addition to revealing she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at a young age. Nessa Barrett's quotes revealing she has bipolar disorder are bravely honest.

In an Aug. 5 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Barrett revealed she's been in therapy since childhood. "I have generalized anxiety disorder and bipolar [disorder]," she said. "I've been in therapy for anxiety since I was, like, six. And then when I was about 14, I was misdiagnosed with depression. And then I recently have been diagnosed with bipolar."

Between dealing with bipolar disorder along with online bullying on TikTok, Barrett admitted being on the app has been hard on her mental health.

"All the hate got overwhelming. I had to spend time away from reading comments, watching hate videos on me. It really took a toll on me and I just wanted to better myself by excluding social media," she said.

Barrett made it known that although she's famous on TikTok, she's not above getting insecure or making mistakes like any other person her age.

"I'm just a teenager that is still growing and learning, and they're all watching me," she said. "So there are gonna be times where I do make mistakes and people are very hard when it comes to that. And no matter how sincere or sorry that I can be, I'm still going to get criticized for everything that I do, which is hard but I learned that the hard way."

YouTube

If fans think they've been seeing less of Barrett on the video app, they're probably right. Barrett said she needs to take breaks from the app, sometimes deleting it entirely. "For my mental health, I realized that reading those comments and seeing those comments just wasn't healthy," she said. "There was a point where I had deleted all my apps and would only re-download them to post."

There has been positive aspects to the app, Barrett admitted; mainly that it gave her a platform to promote her music. Barrett released her debut single "Pain" on July 31.

Growing up in the social media spotlight is no easy feat, especially when TikTok culture can be so toxic at times. But shoutout to Barrett for bravely sharing her truth and spotlighting her own personal experience with bipolar disorder.