Dove Cameron Shares Tearful Post Feeling ‘Terrorized’ by Her Identities

Dove Cameron is getting candid with her fans. The Descendants actress on Wednesday shared a series of tearful selfies as she opened up about her mental health, sharing in a vulnerable message to fans that she’s “been struggling lately with the concept of self” and is attempting to “unlearn self abuse and self hatred.”

In an emotional Instagram post, the 26-year-old actress revealed that she has been struggling with “the concept of self, my inner relationship to who i know myself to be and my outer perceivable self who i feel i have never known but other people seem to.” Cameron explained how she’s been “covering mirrors” and “feeling wrong in clothing that used to make me feel beautiful.” She added that she’s “been crying a lot lately, sometimes terrorized by my identity and image, sometimes in absolute flow with something new and peripheral and joyous to me.”

Reflecting on herself, Cameron went on to share that she doesn’t know if she’s “ever slowed down enough to learn who i am outside of fight, flight or freeze. but the self finds ways of showing up anyway, trickling in enough to hint at who we might be if we didn’t feel we had to be everything but the self.” The actress, who previously came out as queer, went on to write that “sexuality and performative gender norms, societal rewards and identity are really throwing me for a loop.”

Cameron said that she feels “social media” and “constant broadcasting of self and visibility of ourselves and everyone everywhere” are “not optimal for mental health, clarity of energy or relationship to our inner world.” Cameron added that she choosing to say is i am in process, im investigating, i’m struggling more than half of the time and i’m trying to maintain a quiet non judgmental curiosity rather than punish myself for not knowing what i’m feeling or where i’m going.” The actress explained that she chose to share her message because she doesn’t want others to “feel alone in a sea of what seems like humans who are comfortable in their identity.”

“We all deserved a life unburdened by the societally created identity, we all deserve to unlearn self abuse and self hatred,” she wrote. “am on that journey now, i’m sharing so that we may all feel more comfortable in a conversation that may be confusing, and we may navigate something that feels difficult to put to words, together.”

In the caption of the post, Cameron added that she is “beginning to have a hope” that public platforms that were previously “difficult” for her “to learn to take up space as myself in, can actually be the conduit for change/mutual support/exploration/safety.” Cameron told her followers, “maybe the spaces that are the least human can become the most human, if we want that, and we can all let each other take up a little more space. i love you.”