Dove Cameron Opens up About Suicidal Thoughts & Her Father’s Death in Touching Interview
The actress said the ‘shame’ around mental health struggles needs to stop so that more people will feel comfortable asking for help.
Dove Cameron, 27, revealed she’s had moments where she felt “incredibly suicidal” and said she wants those suffering to get the help they deserve. The actress opened up about her mental health struggles as well as her father’s death by suicide, which happened when she was 15 in 2011, in a touching new interview with Byrdie. “I think it’s important just to say this: I’ve had times in my life when I was incredibly suicidal,” she said. “And I think that needs to be destigmatized.”
“My father [died by] suicide,” the Descendants star continued. “I’ve spoken about that a lot. And I always think about how much shame and stigma there is around suicide. And if we could be more open about suicide and mental health, I think there would be so many people [who would say], ‘Hey, I feel like there’s no other option. Can you show me that there are?’”
Dove also revealed she’s a big fan of therapy, which she’s been doing since she was eight years old. The treatment helps her do what she can to get out of bed in the morning and get through the day when she has those tough mental health moments. In addition to getting out and seeing the sunshine and people, the talented star, who also sings, said she’ll sometimes sit in the dark in total silence “for hours on end,” letting stuff come up from the “back shelves of her brain.”
Before Dove’s latest interview about her mental health, she opened up about her struggles in an Instagram post, which can be seen below, back in May 2022. It included several photos of her taking a selfie while crying and a lengthy caption that explained her feelings. “identity vs the self !!! depression & dysphoria. the self is someone i feel i have always deeply known, someone i deeply love and protect, like my own child, i know this self and we are very close,” the caption began.
“for me, identity and the self have always been diametrically opposed, and there has only ever been room for one at a time to occupy my life,” she continued. “i have never been able to make them hold hands, and i realize as i get older, its because i hold a deep seeded belief that who i am is wrong, i am not allowed to be just as i am, i am not meant to be here. i feel i must be something else if i am going to be allowed to be here. and i really do wanna be here with you.”
“more days than not, i feel pulled towards no identity at all, i feel most natural as something imperceivable to myself, an energy and a presence,” she went on. “i don’t know if i will ever be able to live as this, if i will ever find a rhythm in this job where perception is one of the major cornerstones. so far, the self and the identity seem to harm each other, in my personal experience. i’m feeling it out. and if you are too, we can do it together. the longer i’m alive, the more i realize these inner dialogues are actually pretty universal.”
Dove ended the caption by explaining that she was starting to have “hope” that the “public platform” that’s been “difficult” for her, “can actually be the conduit for change/mutual support/exploration/safety.” She also said “there is room for us to talk about the things that terrify us/can’t be commoditized on a large scale, that can’t be commercialized and easily sound-bitten. 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.”