Kendall Jenner opened up about her mental health journey — and joined forces with Kenneth Cole to launch the Mental Health Coalition amid the coronavirus quarantine.
The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star, 24, participated in the “How Are You Really?” challenge on Thursday, May 14, which is focused on changing the way people think about mental health, and uniting people in their struggles.
“I have been doing a lot of thinking during quarantine, mostly about mental health,” Jenner said in her video, which she later shared via Instagram on Friday, May 15.
The model explained that she has some “really good days, where I wake up in the morning and make a list of what I want to get done. I’ll be super productive.”
On those days, “I feel really good,” Jenner said. “Where I feel like I can get a lot done and my days feel semi full.”
“Then the days that I don’t really have as much going on, I tend to get a bit anxious,” the reality TV star continued. “To calm myself down I usually read a book or meditate, or even sit outside and enjoy nature or something. I’m off and on.”
Jenner added: “I will say my bad days aren’t the greatest. I’m trying to get through them, I’m trying to find my little remedies and not feel alone.”
The TV personality explained that the toughest part of the coronavirus pandemic has been that she was “feeling alone in all of it.”
“When I decided to join this challenge, I was very excited. I wanted to connect with people and I wanted [them] to feel like they weren’t alone either,” she concluded. “I hope that you can join me and let’s take the stigma off of mental health. I think we should all connect and feel like we’re in this together. “
In honor of Cole’s coalition launch on Friday, Jenner further discussed her past with anxiety and mental health struggles on Good Morning America.
“I was really, really young and I remember feeling like I couldn’t breathe and ran into my mom and like, ‘Mom I can’t breathe. Something must be wrong,'” she recalled during her video-chat interview.
Jenner said that her anxious feelings went away for a few years before bubbling back up to the surface.
“I would have crazy panic attacks,” she said. “[I] finally kind of got the information that I needed about it. Honestly what I hope to accomplish is for people to not feel as alone.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
