Delevingne opens up on dark days of depression

By Jemma Crew

AAP·

12 Oct, 2015 04:00 PM2 mins to read

Cara Delevingne. Photo / Getty Images

Cara Delevingne has opened up about her prolonged fight with depression, saying writing and yoga helped turn her life around.

The model-turned-actress said she had felt "completely suicidal and alone" and wanted "the world to swallow me up" in her school years.

She said part of her recovery was learning how to say no.

Of her frantic modelling career, the 23-year-old said: "I had no concept of saying no to anyone, ever. In life you should always experience things but you should say no. It's more about being in control and not being a puppet.

"Because after a while I just started to get sick and got this horrible thing, psoriasis."

She said she saw herself like an alien while she had the skin condition and felt "more disconnected from myself than I think I ever had".

Speaking at the Women in the World conference, Delevingne said she reached a turning point. "I wanted someone to go 'you need to take a break, you need to look after yourself'. No one did.

"I eventually said no and I eventually took a break. I took the advice of Kate Moss who picked me up off the floor passed out.

"I started writing - writing is something that really saved my life. I would read what I had written and it would be like someone else was speaking to me. It was a very strange experience.

"Then after that I found yoga, which was a huge thing for me."

Delevingne also shared a poem that she had written.

Ending with advice for the audience of young women, she said: "My message has always been to love yourself, to embrace your flaws.