Ella Purnell follows "feel good" accounts on Instagram so she doesn’t read negative posts that will "change her mood".
As a teenager, the ‘Churchill’ star experienced depression and anxiety and she also self-harmed following a bad experience at school, but after learning about what led her to self-harm she now has a number of coping mechanisms in place to prevent her from relapsing into that pattern of behaviour and that includes being careful about her social media interactions.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph newspaper, Ella, 22, said: "You have to work really hard, constantly, at it. There’s always the possibility that you could relapse. Self-harm is always going to be something I think about, because for a long time that was how I coped with pain. Start that communication; check in with your friends and follow some feel-good Instagram people. The first thing that changed my life was telling someone.
"I don’t scroll [aimlessly] anymore, because you always end up seeing something that changes your mood. Really put yourself first. It’s a hard thing to do when you’re growing up."
The ‘Sweetbitter’ actress had her first panic attack when she was 13 and she can recall feeling very confused about her feelings when she was growing up because she thought you could only be depressed if "something really bad had happened in your life".
Ella – whose parents separated shortly after she was born – decided to go public with her mental health struggles earlier this year and she is proud that she did as it has not only helped her but also lots of her fans deal with similar issues.
She said: "You feel like it’s a weird secret you’re holding in, but it’s really not. It’s just a part of you and it shouldn’t be this big ‘coming out’. I never thought I would have the courage to talk about it publicly because it’s a very private thing, it’s very personal and vulnerable.
"It was really scary, but it’s been so lovely reading messages from people saying, ‘You’ve encouraged me to speak out, to tell someone’. Then I started thinking, ‘This is my thing.’ "
Ella Purnell follows ‘feel good’ accounts on Instagram
