Hailey Baldwin Bieber is speaking out about how her health crisis has affected her physical and mental health.
The 26-year-old model was hospitalized in March with stroke-like symptoms caused by a blood clot in her brain.
Baldwin Bieber was diagnosed with a patent foramen ovale, or PFO, a tiny opening in the heart that did not shut properly after birth.
While she was undergoing a treatment to closure the PFO, which she said in a subsequent YouTube video as “extremely nicely,” she expounded on her health experience, describing it as “quite scary and really startling” on the newest episode of The Run-Through with Vogue podcast.
Bieber Baldwin stated that she was in Palm Springs at the time of her health scare. Despite returning to the spot several times, including during the podcast episode’s production, she said that visiting the site is “extremely triggering” for her.
“Coming back here after the first couple of times was an odd triggering kind of experience for me because you simply recall everything that happened in that instant. But, on the positive side, it led me to discover that I had this hole in my heart “She went on to say that she had learnt a lot about herself in the months after her hospitalization.
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“I had a lot of anxiety following that. I had a mild case of PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder] and was terrified that it might happen again “She said. “It was just a feeling that I never wanted to experience again. I mean, it was terrible, shocking, and disorienting in every way you could think of.”
The Rhode Skin founder noted that while she is “open to talking about the event if it may help somebody else,” it was “very hard to talk about” in the months following the incident.
“Even making a YouTube video for my YouTube channel was difficult for me.
It brings back memories of going through that situation for me. It becomes easier and easier to talk about it with time. I’m really grateful that I was fortunate to have excellent physicians, nurses, and other individuals that helped me figure out what happened “She said.
Despite the fact that she is “only now starting to break out of that type of fight or flight sensation of being worried about something horrible happening again,” she has gradually began to enjoy life again, free of anxiety or thoughts about what might happen with her health in the future.
“When I think back, things could have been so much worse,” she remarked. “There were so many worse things that could have happened in that moment.”
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