Selena Gomez speaks about mental health, says girls need to 'feel allowed to fall apart'

— -- Selena Gomez has found professional success as a musician and actress, but she's also outspoken about her struggles with mental health.

"Tours are a really lonely place for me," Gomez said in an interview with Vogue. "My self-esteem was shot. I was depressed, anxious. I started to have panic attacks right before getting onstage, or right after leaving the stage."

The former Disney star is also the most followed user on Instagram, where her posts garner millions of likes and comments from her 113 million followers. But despite the love she receives from fans on social media, Gomez said she often feels inadequate.

"As soon as I became the most followed person on Instagram, I sort of freaked out," Gomez said. "It had become so consuming to me. It's what I woke up to and went to sleep to. I was an addict, and it felt like I was seeing things I didn't want to see, like it was putting things in my head that I didn't want to care about."

After taking a step back and participating in therapy for 90 days last year, Gomez felt reinvigorated.

"It was one of the hardest things I've done, but it was the best thing I've done," she said.

She no longer has Instagram downloaded onto her phone, and doesn't even know her own password -- her assistant takes care of that now.

Gomez said therapy should be something more people, particularly young women, embrace.

"I wish more people would talk about therapy," she said. "We girls, we're taught to be almost too resilient, to be strong and sexy and cool and laid-back, the girl who's down. We also need to feel allowed to fall apart."