Bella Hadid was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2012. Credit: Showbit

Top model Bella Hadid, 24, who revealed in 2016 that she suffers from Lyme disease, shared rare behind-the-scenes photos of her hooked up to an IV drop. “Living with a few chronic autoimmune disease = always finding time for my IVs,” she captioned her Instagram post on Feb 26.

She also shared an image of bandages on her arms on Instagram Story, writing: “After 10 years of needles, my tiny veins usually give out once before we get a good one.”

She was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2012, together with her younger brother Anwar, 21, and their mother, Yolanda, 57. Her older sister Gigi, 25, has a different autoimmune disorder, Hashimoto’s disease.

Last year, Bella Hadid posted an Instagram Story about the “invisible” disease and how it affected her daily life, with symptoms such as headaches, brain fog, insomnia, nausea, joint pain, weight gain and loss.

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Other celebrities who also battle the same disease include singers Avril Lavigne and Justin Bieber, and actor Alex Baldwin. There is no cure for chronic Lyme disease.

In an interview with People magazine in 2016, she said: “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.”

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While her Instagram feed often shows the glitzy side of being a model, life off the catwalk is anything but glamorous.

In the same People magazine article, she revealed: “When I’m at Fashion Week it’s literally only work, and when I’m not working I’m sleeping – especially during fashion week. I don’t go out that much, I eat dinner by myself in my hotel room and go to sleep. That’s pretty much my fashion week.”

This article first appeared in The Straits Times.