The “Sorry” singer Halsey apologized to her fans after sharing a photo that many found triggering.
On Sunday, the 26-year-old took part in the Instagram viral prompt “Post a photo of…”, asking fans what they would like to see in their stories. And everything went well until a fan asked to see what Halsey was like at his “lowest point”.
That was when the hit-maker shared a photo of herself with an eating disorder. She wore only underwear in the scene that captured what she considered to be her worst moment, and she added the caption, “TW: ED” and “ask for help”, along with a heart emoji.
While the “TW” represented the trigger warning, some of its fans and followers stated that the brief warning was not enough, as it failed to give others the opportunity to get away from the image before seeing it. Halsey said he understood the criticism and removed the photo from his Instagram stories before it expired. Her too took to Twitter to resolve the controversy.
“TW: disorderly eating,” she started the tweet. “I’m sorry for posting a picture of me depicting my struggle with ED without a sufficient trigger warning. I was too nervous to post and didn’t think straight. I had positive intentions. I would never want to harm someone who shares my struggle. “
The comments that followed his message sparked a debate about the use of trigger alerts and personal responsibility. Just a minute later, Halsey shared another tweet, this explaining that she needed to get away from the conversation.
“With that said, I am going to disconnect now, because it has become something that I am not emotionally prepared to deal with for now,” she wrote. “I hope everything is alright.”
This combination of openness and vulnerability is nothing new for Halsey, who spoke openly about her health problems in the past – including during an interview with Rolling Stone last year, where she discussed her diagnosis of bipolarity and revealed that she had been “compromised” twice since then gaining fame.
“It was my choice,” she told the publication. “I said to (my manager): ‘Hey, I’m not going to do anything bad right now, but I’m getting to the point where I’m scared to do this, so I need to work this out.’ It’s still happening in my body. I only know when to get in front of him. “