Bella Hadid Shares Photos of Her Life with Lyme Disease: 'Finding Time for My IVs'

Bella Hadid is offering a rare glimpse into how she treats her autoimmune disorders. 

On Friday, the 24-year-old model posted a series of photos on her Instagram page, showing her hooked up to an IV. "Living with a few chronic autoimmune disease = always finding time for my IVs," she captioned the photos.

Hadid was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2012 alongside her younger brother Anwar, 21, and their mom, Yolanda, 57.

In 2016, when Bella was 20, the star opened up to PEOPLE about struggling with Lyme disease while working as a model. 

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories

"Life isn't always what it looks like on the outside, and the hardest part of this journey is to be judged by the way you look instead of the way you feel," she said at the time.

Former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Yolanda told PEOPLE that the severe symptoms can sometimes "bring you to your knees."

"There are rough days when you sleep 12 hours, you wake up at 11 and you can't get out of bed, with severe joint pain, brain fog, anxiety. There are a lot of symptoms that you can't see from the outside but bring you to your knees on the inside," she said at the same 2016 Global Lyme Alliance gala event.

"You can never get rested, that's the best way to explain it," the Hadid matriarch shared at the time. "Life goes on and you try to keep going. Especially with the younger generations, they have to keep pushing."

Bella's older sister Gigi, 25, — who has been candid about her own struggles with a different autoimmune disorder, Hashimoto's disease — has also previously spoken out about what it was like to grow up with her mom and siblings battling Lyme. 

"Growing up, having three of my family members sick made me very independent," she told Elle in February 2019. "My mom couldn't drive or get out of bed some days, so I took my brother to school with me, or I made lunch."

"But I also felt a lot of guilt for being the one person in the family who didn't understand what they were going through," Gigi added. "It's hard when your whole family is in pain and you don't know what to do."

Source: Read Full Article