Sometimes it can seem like celebrities exist in their own world, cut off from real struggles — but then a heartbreaking dose of reality proves this to be false.

Sure, many of them display baffling behavior and endorse dangerously hypocritical politics, but public figures are also victims to life’s invisible predators just like the rest of us.

“What’s beautiful and hard and interesting about cancer is that it tears you down and builds you.”

Shannen Doherty, 45, best known as one of the stars of television’s “Beverly Hills, 90210,” is struggling with breast cancer. She’s decided to use her public stature in a brave way.

Doherty has documented the steps of her treatment and her struggles through social media, eliciting fan support and empathy from people who have known similar hardships. She spoke openly about her cancer struggles in a recent episode of Netflix’s “Chelsea,” hosted by Chelsea Handler. Far from cured, Doherty was honest about her new reality.

“I think what’s beautiful and hard and interesting about cancer is that it tears you down and builds you, and tears you down and builds you and it remakes you so many different times. So, the person I thought I was supposed to be or was going to be, or who I thought I was six months ago, is now somebody completely different.”

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Doherty brought Handler to tears.

The actress went public in August 2015 about her cancer diagnosis when she filed a lawsuit against a former business manager who had allowed her health insurance to lapse.

Fast forward a year later — and the lawsuit was settled, but Doherty revealed her cancer had spread. She had a single mastectomy in May, she said during an interview with “Entertainment Tonight.”

“The unknown is always the scariest part. Is the chemo going to work? Is the radiation going to work? You know — am I going to have to go through this again, or am I going to get secondary cancer? Everything else is manageable. Pain is manageable, you know. Living without a breast is manageable. It’s the worry of your future and how your future is going to affect the people that you love.”

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Revealing the details of her surgery and chemotherapy through social media and interviews, Doherty told “ET,” “I’m being so personal right now, but I think a lot of women can probably go, ‘Yeah, I’ve been through that.'”

Part of the process detailed publicly by Doherty was the loss of her long black hair — a signature piece to her look from “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Charmed.” She also revealed through Instagram posts how her husband of five years, Kurt Iswarienko, and her mother have been with her every step of the way, helping to turn a life-threatening experience into something partly positive.

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“I’m blessed to have such a strong support team starting with @kurtiswarienko who loves me more every second. Can’t imagine my life without him. Cancer is not pleasant but it can bring out the best in relationships or the worse. Thankfully, it has made our marriage stronger,” wrote Doherty on Instagram.

Family aren’t the only ones showing support and love. Besides thousands of comments of support for the actress on her social media posts, coworkers have applauded her courage and openness.

“She’s doing a brave and wonderful job and we obviously support her. We’ve all been talking and supporting her from afar. It’s really hard to know what to do when someone’s going through that,” Doherty’s “90210” costar Tori Spelling told “ET.” “But I think she’s very brave, and I admire her so much.”

Related: Warriors in the Fight Against Breast Cancer

Doherty revealed she’d received a heartfelt note from her “Mallrats” director Kevin Smith, who says he hopes to cast her in the upcoming “Mallrats” sequel,  and found encouragement in the words. “He sent me this long email, but the beginning of it was, ‘You look so … metal with your haircut.’ And it just made me feel so good. I was like, ‘Yeah! I’m a bada**!'”

Of her own celebrity influence through her health crisis, Doherty told Handler, “Right now I have this sort of amazing platform, and I’m able to help other men and other women go through this … It allows me to sort of know what I can go out there and fight more for, in order to make things a lot easier for a lot of people.”