Bella Hadid just whipped the internet into a frenzy with her latest photo dump, and no, it was not a fit check nor a flashback of her strutting her stuff down the runway. It was September 17 that the 28-year-old model posted a carousel that took from serene rainbow pics to quite literal pics of her hooked up to IVs, bedridden in the hospital, and with an oxygen mask. The caption? A sudden yet devastating note: “I’m sorry, I always go MIA. I love you guys.”
It’s the kind of post that compels you to stop scrolling. You calm down at first by looking at the first few pics, but all of a sudden, your eyes are glued to Bella’s tear-stained face, medical tubing, and whole setup that screams treatment. One photo shows her icing her own forehead while relaxing with an IV in her arm, another has her reclined with devices apparently hooked up to her. By the third-to-last picture, she has herself laid out fully upon a bed that looks straight out of the hospital ward. Fans went into panic mode right away, posing the question that was on everybody’s mind: What is wrong with Bella?
Twitter replies, and it soon gets nasty
If anything can be said about the internet, it is that humans will become “doctors” and conspiracy theorists overnight. While lots of people showered Bella’s statements with love, Twitter went dark real quick.
One wrote: “It’s not chronic Lyme, it’s kidney disease from long-term anorexia. She’s literally going to need dialysis.”
Another dragged the Hadid family: “It’s sad because the honest truth is probably that most of her health symptoms come from being too skinny, and instead her crazy mom convinced her she has chronic Lyme disease or whatever.”
Some weren’t convinced of the Lyme narrative either: “Lyme disease as the catch-all for disguising going to rehab for eating disorders and drugs will never not be funny to me.”
And the toughest criticism? “The way no one is talking about how that girl totally has Munchausen.”
It wasn’t all bad; many of her fans came to her defense and asked people to stop diagnosing her through their screens. But the divide was straightforward: half of social media thinks she’s struggling with anorexia, and the other thinks her Lyme disease is acting up again.
Bella has spoken of it before
This is not the first time that Bella has discussed living with chronic illness. Prior to that, she became frank in a British Vogue magazine interview, disclosing the exhausting nature of her daily existence.
“Does anyone even really understand chronic illness? Everything seems. It’s tough to shower most of the week,” she said. She admitted that even the day of her interview, she felt “excruciating pain until 11 am.”
Bella’s health history has always been intertwined with her family. Both her brother, Anwar, and her mother, Yolanda, also have Lyme disease. The Hadids, for years now, have been vocal despite naysayers constantly denying the existence of the disease.
What Exactly is Lyme Disease?
For the uninitiated, Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia bacteria, usually by the bite of a tick. It can be treated with antibiotics early enough, yet many don’t become aware that they are actually going through the early symptoms and only seek to be diagnosed years after they first contracted the disease. That’s when it all gets messy. Symptomatically, says the Mayo Clinic, they can be:
Intense exhaustion
Arthritis and muscle pains
Headaches Sleep problems
Mood swings and depression. It’s not some fabricated celebrity excuse; it’s just that it’s misunderstood and invisible at times, so people love to question it. That’s just what’s going on with Bella at the moment.
