Staying strong. Stephanie Hollman got real about how she copes with depression and anxiety.
“I feel like I will struggle with it my entire life because, I do take antidepressants, but it is something I have always dealt with, even as a child,” the Real Housewives of Dallas star told Us Weekly exclusively. “I think it is a journey that I am always going to have, but I have the tools to elevate my mood, I know working out helps and meditation. I have tools I did not have before, so I am able to take something that was holding me back and using it to help myself and hopefully inspire others to be more open about who you are and what you go through.”
Stephanie opened up about her mental health battle on the Bravo series. During season 3, she revealed that she attempted suicide more than once in her early 20s.
“I was with a guy who didn’t make me feel like a worthy person. I never felt pretty enough, I never felt good enough. I was always judged. We broke up and it was, like, I lost my friends. And I just couldn’t handle it,” she explained during an August 2018 episode. “I remember going to the bathroom and finding a bottle of pills. And I remember taking them all, laying down in my bed. … My mom was home, so I stumbled into her room and told her what I had done, and then she called the ambulance.”
The September 18 episode included a scene of Stephanie and her life coach. After being so open about her past on the series, the reality star revealed she became overwhelmed with people reaching out to her for help via social media. She added that she wants to direct her struggling fans to professional help.
Stephanie told Us, meanwhile, that she tries to focus on the positive messages she receives because social media is both “a blessing and a curse.”
“I had a really hard time, not only reading things, but just people seeking me out to tell me what they thought of me was really hard [for me] personally,” she explained to Us. “Then I would take it in and instead of letting it go, it would just consume me, and it just made me in a very dark space for a while. Then I realized that if you focus on the good, and just realize that there is some people who just want to ruin your day, and then there is some people that uplift you. So I try to, now I can focus on the good and realize the other people, I do not know them. It does not matter. You have to compartmentalize it.”
Stephanie concluded: “People just want to be seen. So, I realize that. When I am only responding to negative people, then I am feeding what they want. Now I really only respond to positive people, because when you do not give the attention, they kind of go away.”
The Real Housewives of Dallas airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
