WWE's Lana Opens Up About Battles With Mental Illness, Comments On Toxic Fans

During the latest edition of WWE Chronicle, Lana spoke about her recent struggles with mental health, being away from Rusev and the impact toxic fans have had on her.

Since Lana's WWE debut, the "Ravishing Russian" had spent the majority of her on-screen time either standing beside or opposite her real-life husband Miro/Rusev. Then, when the "Bulgarian Brute' was released from the company earlier this year, that all suddenly changed.

Speaking about how the impact of not having her husband around made her mental health struggles that much worse, Lana revealed:

"It’s been really hard. Not having 300 days on the road, being at home, then all of a sudden no fans. Then, of course, like being with the person from the very beginning, like traveling with that person, being literally 24/7, being with that person and then that person is not there, it’s really hard. I don’t even know how sometimes I keep on pushing through."

As an avid user of social media sites such as Instagram, Lana has also had to deal with an uncomfortable amount of abuse from toxic fans online. During the documentary, she discussed how she felt after fans called for her to be fired (or worse) and revealed that she asked her parents to pray for her at one stage:

"For me, what was really, really hard was, usually going to arenas and people boo you, it’s something about the energy, you’re like, ‘oh, I’m in control of this,’ right? But then when all of a sudden I don’t interact with any people whatsoever and I’m just at home and I post something and everyone is just so mean. I couldn’t handle it anymore, because that’s like my only interaction with human beings is my Instagram account or Twitter, and now everyone in comments are like, ‘you should be fired. Why are you not fired? You suck. You’re this. You’re that.’ I remember, texting my parents and being like,’ please pray for me, my mental health is doing really bad, I’m really depressed. I just — I can’t take it anymore. I’m just… I’m so sad. Like, I don’t want to do anything.’ Like, why even try? Why? It doesn’t matter. You work hard. You do this like you can’t post because everyone is going to tell you to go jump off a cliff and kill yourself and like you’re worth nothing. So it’s like, well, why?"

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In recent weeks, Lana has been consistently dumped through a table by Nia Jax on Monday Night Raw, with reports stating that this is WWE's way of turning the star into a popular babyface character. Whether this odd tactic pays off in the end, though, remains to be seen.

Lana's Chronicle episode is now available on the WWE Network, giving us a behind-the-scenes look at CJ Perry, her family life and the work she puts into being a WWE superstar.