Lili Reinhart is opening up about her struggle with alopecia.
The Riverdale alum revealed in a TikTok video shared on January 29, 2024, that she was undergoing red light therapy and shared that she “was just diagnosed with alopecia in the midst of a major depressive episode.”
The Look Both Ways actress, who has been open about her mental health journey and battle with depression and anxiety, lip synced over audio of a man saying, “I’m pushed beyond the limits of what a person should be pushed to endure.”
She captioned her post, “Red light therapy is my new best friend #alopecia #mentalhealth.”
According to the National Institute of Health, alopecia occurs when the “immune system attacks hair follicles and causes hair loss.” The cause of the condition is unknown and it impacts as many as 6.7 million people in the United States, the National Alopecia Areata Foundation reports.
Lili spoke about her mental health struggles with Dr. Daniel Amen for his interview series Scan My Brain in September 2022, where she revealed that she experienced a recent mental health “spiral” from dealing with body dysmorphia while filming the latest season of Riverdale.
“It has been really hard the last couple months, specifically dealing with more noticeable weight gain than I ever have in my life while also being on film while it was happening. So, shooting my show [Riverdale] and having that weight gain basically documented on camera, episode by episode, week by week of my life, my weight fluctuation. It felt very much like this massive problem, this thing that was taking up truly 90 percent of my brain capacity, I was barely thinking about anything else,” she recalled.
“[Body positivity is] not something that I’ve mastered and I don’t wake up every day feeling like, ‘Oh it’s OK that I don’t look like that.’ There are very brief moments where I feel that and when I do feel that, I feel empowered to talk about them and be vocal about them. But the other 90 percent of the time, it’s the struggling part,” Lili explained. “I want it to happen and I want to fully believe it but I’m also still on a daily basis struggling with it.”
Love J-14? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for fun, exclusive videos with your favorite stars.
