The 31-year-old then remarked that her first reaction to the photo of her young self was disgust.
"My sister sent me this photo today... immediately I replied 'SO gross! I look disgusting!!! What a depressing period in my life.' Then I stopped... I went back into our family chat. I looked at the photo for a long time.. looked at my face. My eyes. And I just cried," she admitted.
"I remember how awful this period in my life was. I was EXTREMELY depressed, for a very long time. My life had been full of incredibly difficult challenges.. I couldn’t handle it anymore & I felt like my life wasn’t worth sticking around for. But somehow, I got through it. I found the light when darkness was the only thing I could see, feel & breathe. So to you, younger Sam. I see you. I love you. And I’m proud of you. You are so much stronger than you know x"
Sam then addressed the fact that her recent Instagram Stories had "a similar pattern" and that she'd been recalling some of the tougher moments from her past.
"I’ve been consciously reconnecting with dark, uncomfortable memories/moments in my life.. going back in my mind, thinking about all the details in my life, so I connect vividly.. and I give myself love, compassion & kindness in attempt to heal old traumas. I’m taking you all on the journey with me, because this girl in the photo deserves light & love.. not to be hidden away in purposefully blocked out memories," she wrote, along with the hashtags #healing #selflove #mentalhealth #findingstrength #depressionrecovery and tagging her mental health initiative Believe by Sam Frost.
Speaking to WHO as part of the 2020 Most Beautiful People Issue, Sam opened up about her lifelong battle with depression and anxiety and how she let critics get under her skin in her younger years.
“I used to criticise myself heavily and so everything the critics were saying, I was thinking myself. It just felt toxic and negative from inside my mind.”
The blonde beauty is now focused on simply being herself.
“I’ve come to peace with the fact it’s fine if you don’t like me because I have so many beautiful people who are kind to me. I’m surrounded by love, and so I just focus on that.”
On another personal note, it appears that Sam and her ex boyfriend Dave Bashford are back together.
The Home and Away star shared photos and videos of their cute catch-ups to Instagram in December including an all too cute video of the duo playing paper scissors rocks to determine who would have to swim first.
“Dave’s amazing person and that's never going to change,” Sam previously told TV WEEK of her ex.
“It wasn't an ugly or messy break-up. It was just two people who love each other dearly as friends, and we promised to look after each other.”