“I can’t wait for you to come back”: these are the words of tenderness that the model Gigi Hadid addressed to her sister Bella, who is recovering from Lyme disease. “Bella has just completed a long and intensive treatment for Lyme disease. I am so proud of her and happy to have her back. When she feels ready,” she wrote on Instagram Stories.
Lyme disease is a tick-borne infection caused by the spirochete Borrelia. The initial symptoms cause a skin rash, which after a few weeks can lead to neurological changes up to cardiac and rheumatological complications. For Lyme disease Bella takes antibiotics (she said it herself) to keep her symptoms under control. The model has been suffering from this disease since 2012 along with her mother Yolanda Hadid and brother Anwar. Bella’s use of social media to discuss her physical and mental health issues helps her, she says, “to deal with illness psychologically as well.” She herself defined the disease as “a heartbreaking and exhausting struggle, one day is fine, the next day I feel down.” during the My Monday Morning podcast newspapers The Wall Street Journal.