Bridgerton star Ruby Barker has reportedly been hospitalized after struggling with mental health issues. The actress openly talked about her mental health and encouraged others to more carefully consider their mental health and get support when they need it.

In a video of over 5 minutes, posted via Instagram on May 26 (Thursday), the 25-year-old actress revealed she was recently hospitalized for an undiagnosed mental health condition after realizing she had been “really unwell for a long time.” She captioned the video, “Mental health week is every week for me. Off my chest. I feel like I’ve not been completely honest so this is for my followers. Time to be transparent. I’ve been struggling since Bridgerton, this is the truth. Thank you all for supporting me, your love holds me up”

In the video shared, Barker shared that she was about to be discharged from a mental health facility and was planning to take some time away. “I just want to be honest with everybody, I have been struggling,” she said at the beginning of the clip. “So I’m in the hospital at the minute and I’m gonna get discharged soon and hopefully get to continue with my life."

“I’m gonna take a little bit of a break for myself and I want to encourage others if you are struggling, please do yourself a favor. Take a break. Stop being so hard on yourself.” Barker noted that while she had to previously drop out of a West End production of Running with Lions after contracting Covid-19 in addition to dealing with mental illness, while also reassuring fans that she was "on new heights" since getting support. She recalled being "rage-filled, frustrated, angry" and "carrying the weight of the world on my back," before getting a diagnosis. “All this intergenerational trauma bundled up inside me and I was carrying the weight of a world on my back,” she explained.

“Now I’m at a point where I have a diagnosis and I will talk to you about that at another time,” she added. “But I have a diagnosis and I am relinquishing myself. I’m forgiving myself and drawing a line in the sand. I can’t carry on the way that I’ve been carrying on. I need to change. So that’s what I’m trying to do. I was trying to hold together my mental health like this, just adding so much pressure. Like my brain was just gonna go boom, and that’s basically what happened. Sometimes you just got to take a break. You’ve got to say, ‘I can’t do this right now. I need support.'”

The Bridgerton star, who plays Marina Thompson in the first and second seasons of the Netflix and Shondaland series, also took a moment to thank the various people who helped her “have a job, work, have a purpose, have a reason, you know, make me feel like I matter.” She thanked her friends and mentors, along with Netflix and Bridgerton executive producer Shonda Rhimes. “I need to thank Netflix and Shonda Rhimes and Shondaland for giving me an opportunity, for saving me,” she said.

The actress concluded her video assuring that she’s now “better” and “cannot wait to fulfill all of my engagements and to have a good career and a good life. I do not want my diagnosis to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I want to survive and I will survive and I’m going to and so are you,” she said. “That’s the beauty of it. So are you.”

 

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