Pia Wurtzbach talks about mental health struggles after winning Miss Universe crown
Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach this time pulled no punches as she opened up about some serious mental health struggles that she had to endure after winning the Miss Universe crown.
In a rare tell-all, the beauty queen, who was revered by many for winning the crown after a 4-decade drought and was seen living a fairytale actually, faced an opposite life.
Pia's reason for championing the cause comes from a far deeper place no one knew about. The 32-year-old beauty queen, who is a staunch advocate of mental health, talked about all of this and squeezed her life in a 15-minute video to inspire others to take mental health seriously.
“Sounds like the dream life, doesn't it? Girl joins a beauty pageant, wins it, almost didn't and moves on with her life doing amazing things, but seriously now I tell you this. The struggle was so real, behind that night, the crown, the gowns, the smiles and all the success. It masked the troubles that were happening in here (head) and in here (heart),” she said.
Giving a brief recollection of her past, Pia went back to her struggle-filled early years where at 11, she already had to assume the responsibility of earning for her family. Fast forward into her 20's, luck was still elusive even as she entered showbiz and modelling.
Jumping into an abusive relationship also further took a heavy blow on the young Pia. It was only when she found the courage to take her life back that she finally pursued her passion for pageants eventually paving the way for her dramatic rise to fame.
Pia's perserverance was praised by many, especially considering the fact that it took her three tries to win the Binibining Pilipinas Universe title. This however did not go without detriments and bullying. People still criticised her for so many things. Among those was her choice to go for pageants simply because her attempt at showbiz “failed.”
When she finally won the crown for the country in 2015, Pia became an overnight superstar. Everyone simply wanted a piece of her. This also was the time when her life turned around. Despite the adulation, love and success, something felt wrong inside.
“Maybe it was to many people who saw me and who saw my journey. From the outside it looked like the perfect fairytale ending to a lifelong struggle of family breaking apart, financial struggles, and dreams being pushed away.
"Maybe from afar it did look perfect but the reality was far from it. What people saw after my reign was a Cinderella story and a happy ending but I was struggling even more inside."
Not long after, her mental problems got serious and she was diagnosed with a generalized anxiety disorder and major depression.
"All of the pain and suffering I endured all my life caught up to me and manifested itself in an ugly self-destructive way. You'd think that the crown and the title would be the bandage to all of that. You'd think that it would be enough to make sense to all the pain and the rejection but it didn't.”
To make things worse, she developed “unhealthy coping habits” and became self-harming.
“I was pulling my hair, a condition called Trichotillomania and in the four corners of my room I also abused alcohol. I was deteriorating. I would just sit there dwelling in my pain crying. I felt so alone. I was nothing like the life people thought I had. I realized that all of the things I didn't address when I was younger came back to me in a big and harmful way. You can't escape it no matter how successful you become. It was like a poison slowly killing me.”
All of this she said was a result of that desire “to fit in.” She felt so pressured to be the Miss Universe everyone expects her to be that she had to set aside her feelings to put up a fitting front.
Good thing, The Miss Universe organization came to her rescue and arranged all the help she needed. She submitted herself to therapy sessions in New York and in LA to help her manage her mental health.
With her personal experiences and struggles with mental health, she became so driven to encourage others to not be ashamed of their condition, and to admit to needing help. Having gone through it all, she now uses her influence to enlighten everyone about the importance of keeping one's mental health in check and the dangers it can inflict if not managed.
“We need to erase the stigma that somebody who is going through a mental health issue is seen as crazy or over acting and that high functioning individuals like me who look like they got their life figured out, who look like they're okay from the outside, could also be going through something inside that they are too afraid to share because they don't want to let you down or they don't want to disappoint.”
Take a look at Pia Wurtzbach's different looks in this gallery:
