Ever since Justin Bieber’s struggle with drug addiction had become public news, the pop singer had often unfairly faced criticism and trolling over the same. While Bieber has left his substance abuse days behind him and is now father to a child with his wife Haley, trolls have relentlessly been after him with acquisitions of drug usage.
The same thing happened a few years back as pictures of a sick looking Justin Bieber were doing rounds on social media and he was being said to be on Meth. The situation got so bad that Bieber had to come forward and deny these rumors of him using drugs again and he also had to make the news of his disease public, which he had intended to keep private.
In 2020, Justin Bieber revealed that he was suffering from Lyme disease. He broke the news to the world through Instagram and that is where he gave his trolls an earful. Referring to the trolls, Bieber said, “They failed to realise I’ve been recently diagnosed with Lyme disease, not only that but had a serious case of chronic mono which affected my skin, brain function, energy, and overall health.”
For his fans, he added, “It’s been a rough couple years but getting the right treatment that will help treat this so far incurable disease and I will be back and better than ever.” However, after he went public about his disease, another new problem occurred as various media outlets started using his very sickly looking images to publish the news.
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This made Justin Bieber come forward with his request to the media houses to not use such images as they essentially affected his professional life. He said that he felt like those media outlets were trying to “legitimately sabotage” him.
In a post, he wrote, “I don’t know what the algorithm is for why certain photos come up. But this is so frustrating considering that I took a lot of time to get healthy and I feel as though people try to legitimately sabotage me. There was a time where I was really unhealthy. I was battling Lyme disease, right? All of the top photos are me looking disheveled, right?”
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He added, “I was obviously going through a tough time, but it’s like, these are the photos that the media tries to run with.” It should be noted here that Bieber is not the only celebrity who has been a victim of Lyme disease. Celebrities like Bella Hadid, Riley Keough, Ben Stiller, Alec Baldwin,Amy Schumer have also gone through it.
The National Health Service (NHS) describes Lyme disease as a “bacterial infection that can be spread to humans by infected ticks.” The disease is not very uncommon and cure involves usage of steroids and antibiotics. Getting aware of being affected by Lyme disease at an early stage helps to quicken up the treatment.
The trolls’ behavior towards Bieber when he was fighting this disease shows how celebrities are often unfairly and unnecessarily dragged through mud even when they are genuinely suffering.
