21 Musicians with Mental Illness
For too long, numerous people including musicians have quietly battled internal health issues, putting on a happy face for the rest of the world. But effects have been changing. In recent times, numerous artists from across multiple stripes have used their platforms to speak out in the expedients of destigmatizing everything from depression to bipolar complaint and further by opening up about their own struggles and styles for managing.
Adele and Alanis Morissette, for illustration, have participated their gests with postpartum depression. Billie Eilish has opened up about how fame led to depression and suicidal creativity, while Bebe Rexha and Halsey have participated their bipolar complaint judgments. ordnance N ’ Roses rocker Duff McKagan, who battles fear complaints, revealed that a new song was written in the midst of a fear attack, while Rick Springfield recalled a once self-murder attempt in his bio.
These are just some of the stalwart artists who have participated their gests to encourage the millions of suckers who are harkening to them. Read on for further musicians who have opened up about their internal health peregrinations.
6lack
The artist took a break from making music after the release of 2018’s East Atlanta Love Letter to address his depression and internal health. “ I’ll say it was n’t until recent, that I actually learned the significance of getting to the source of the effects that do n’t make me feel great, ” he latterly told Billboard in 2021 as he partnered with Mental Health America of Los Angeles and global remedy service BetterHelp to launch a PSA for World Mental Health Day. “ I want to partake my gests and talk about the coffers effects that helped me, in order to spark people to do the same for themselves. ”
Adele
The Grammy- winning songster opened up about her postpartum depression in a 2016 Vanity Fair cover story when she explained why she was reluctant to have another child after drinking son Angelo. “ I ’m too spooked. I had really bad postpartum depression after I had my son, and it frighted me, ” she said, noting that she didn’t take antidepressants.
“ My knowledge of postpartum — orpost-natal, as we call it in England is that you do n’t want to be with your child; you ’re upset you might hurt your child; you ’re upset you were n’t doing a good job. But I was obsessed with my child. I felt veritably shy; I felt like I ’d made the worst decision of my life. It can come in numerous different forms. ”
Alanis Morissette
After drinking her third child in 2019, the songster opened up about her struggle with postpartum depression in a post on her website. “ I was n’t sure if I would have post partum depression/ anxiety this time around. Or, as I like to call it post partum exertion. Or, also post partum navigator- drenched fosses, ” she wrote.
“ Hormonal. Sleep privation. Fogginess. Physical pain. insulation. Anxiety. Cortisol. Recovery from parturition( as beautiful and violent as mine was at home, dream birth.), integrating new angel baby with aged angel babies. Marriage. All kinds of PTSD triggers. PPD is still a sneaky monkey with a machete. ”
Ariana Grande
“ I know those families and my suckers, and everyone there endured a tremendous quantum of it as well. Time is the biggest thing. I feel like I should n’t indeed be talking about my own experience — like I should n’t indeed say anything. I do n’t suppose I ’ll ever know how to talk about it and not cry, ” the pop star told British Vogue about suffering from PTSD after further than 20 people were killed in a bombing during one of her 2017 shows. “ I ’ve always had anxiety. I ’ve noway really spoken about it because I allowed everyone had it, but when I got home from stint it was the most severe I suppose it’s ever been. ”
Grande also spoke out May 2, 2021, in the expedients of ending the smirch girding internal health. “ Then’s to ending the smirch around internal health and homogenizing asking for help, ” Grande identified a mini gallery of textbook slides, which included multitudinous coffers. “ Healing is n’t direct, delightful, quick or at all easy but we’re then and we ’ve got to commit to making this time as healthy, peaceful and beautiful as possible. the work is so hard but we’re able and worth it. transferring so important love and strength. ”
Bebe Rexha
The songster told her suckers via social media in 2019 that she had been diagnosed with bipolar complaint. “ For the longest time, I did n’t understand why I felt so sick. Why I felt lows that made me not want to leave my house or be around people and why I felt highs that would n’t let me sleep, would n’t let me stop working or creating music. Now I know why, ” she wrote. “ Honesty is a form of tone love. ”
Becky G
The songster- actress participated how touring was impacting her internal health in May 2019. “ This time I came extremely apprehensive of how important traveling f – ks my body, ” she participated in her Instagram Stories. “ The results from it all have been low blood rotation, muscle cramps, dehumidification, anxiety and uncomfortable inflammation in certain areas of my body. I set up my internal headspace getting harder and harder to control with a schedule that’s inconsistent with a healthy sleep schedule and time to relax. ”
The “ Mamiii ” songster went on to partake some of the effects she’s done to ameliorate her internal well- being, which included journaling and stretching.
Big Sean
The “ Bounce Back ” rapper nixed a North American stint in 2018, and latterly told Billboard it was a good move for him personality . “ I noway really took the time out to nurture myself, to take care of myself. It took me a lot of depression having a lot of anxiety to realize commodity was out, ” he said. “ I ’ve been getting myself together, getting my mind right. So I’ve been taking better care of myself. ”
Billie Eilish
The youthful megastar might be on top of the world professionally, but her newfound fame led to depression and suicidal studies, she told Gayle King ahead of the 2020 Grammy Awards. “ I was so unhappy last time I was so unhappy and I was so, like, joyless. I did n’t ever suppose I would be happy again, ever, ” she said. “ I do n’t want to be too dark, but I authentically did n’t suppose I would, like, make it to, like, 17. ”
Bruce Springsteen
The musician participated with Esquire in 2018 that he had plodded with internal health effects, and how he ’d had two passional breakdowns. “ I’ve come near enough to( internal illness) where I see I’m not fully well-conditioned myself, ” spoke Springsteen, who also reflected that his father was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia latterly in life.
“ I’ve had to deal with a lot of it over the times, and I’m on a variety of specifics that keep me on an even ship; else I can swing preferably dramatically and precisely the bus can come off a little fleck. consequently, we’ve to watch, in our blood. I’ve to watch my kiddies, and I’ve been happy there. It ran in my blood going way before my pater
. ”
Camila Cabello
“ OCD is weird. I laugh about it now. Everybody has different ways of running stress. And, for me, if I get really stressed about commodity, I ’ll start to have the same study over and over again, and no matter how numerous times I get to the resolution, I feel like commodity bad is about to be if I do n’t keep allowing about it, ” she told CosmopolitanU.K. in 2018. “ When I set up out, and( learned) how to step back from it, it made me feel so much better. I feel so much more in control of it now. ”
Charli XCX
While promoting her tone- named third reader in 2019, the songster- tunesmith opened up about her internal health. “( I go into) my studies and passions about my internal state and what life is supposed to be as an artist, my depression, and my precariousness, ” she told SPIN about using her music to candidly explore her internal health, and how that has impacted her record. “ I ’m being more honest than ever ahead. It’s been veritably remedial. ”
Demi Lovato
Lovato revealed in a 2011 interview with Robin Roberts that she — also 18 times old — had been diagnosed with bipolar complaint. “ I had no idea that I was indeed bipolar until I went into treatment, ” she said. “ I was actually manic a lot of the times that I would take on workloads, and I would say, ‘ Yes, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. ’ I was conquering the world, but also I would come crashing down, and I would be more depressed than ever. ”
In her 2021 docuseries Dancing With the Devil, the songster participated that she had been misdiagnosed. “ I came out to the public when I set up out I was bipolar because I allowed that it put a logic behind my conduct, ” she explained in the four- part YouTube Originals series. “ I know now from multiple different croakers that it wasn’t because I was bipolar. ”
In addition to participating her gests , Lovato has used her platform to bring mindfulness to internal health issues by speaking with lawmakers on behalf of the Be Oral Speak Up About Mental Health action, and administrative produced the 2017 talkie Beyond Silence, about three people’s gests with internal ails.
Doja Cat
The singer of “Kiss Me More” revealed to Rolling Stone in 2021 that she has ADHD, and had to leave high school at the age of 16 due to her condition. She told the magazine that it felt like she was stuck in one place while everyone else was progressing.
In May 2023, she explained to Insider that her ADHD was the reason why she kept changing the title of her upcoming album. She unintentionally put her ADHD on display by announcing multiple names for the project on Twitter. She revealed that she thought “Hellmouth” was the name of the album, but it turned out that it wasn’t. However, she mentioned that she is good at doing things last minute. So, she has been firing off random stuff and reading comments to see how people receive it, and then saying no a lot and just kidding.
Dove Cameron
After achieving great success with her LGBTQ pop anthem “Boyfriend,” Cameron found herself and her sexual identity in the limelight. While she was happy with the positive response to her song, she also revealed that she had been struggling with depression and dysphoria as she tried to reconcile her public image with her private identity.
In a detailed Instagram post in May 2022, she wrote, “Sexuality and performative gender norms, societal rewards and identity are really throwing me for a loop. Social media, mirrors, branding, and the constant broadcasting of self and visibility of ourselves and everyone everywhere are not optimal for mental health, clarity of energy, or our relationship with our inner world. This is true for all of us.”
Duff McKagan
The bassist of Guns N’ Roses, released a new song named “This Is the Song” on May 10, 2023, to observe Mental Health Awareness Month. In an open letter to his fans, which he posted on his website, the musician shared that he has been dealing with a certain type of panic disorder since he was sixteen. He added that with the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic, his disorder had taken on a different form. “My panic disorder has changed and brought with it a darkness that seems to appear out of nowhere,” he wrote. “It can be terrifying.”
He revealed in his message to fans that “This Is the Song” was written in the midst of a panic attack. “I couldn’t breathe and couldn’t see straight, but fortunately, I found solace in my acoustic guitar. Whenever I hold on to it, play chords, and hum melodies, I can start to climb my way out of that hole,” he wrote. “For those who have never experienced something like this, consider yourselves lucky. To those who know what I’m talking about: YOU ARE NOT ALONE!”
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran, a popular musician, revealed in a 2019 interview with Charlamagne the God that he suffers from social anxiety and dislikes being in large groups of people, which is ironic since his profession requires him to perform in front of audiences.
He described feeling claustrophobic and uncomfortable in such situations. Additionally, during a screening in New York City in May, Sheeran referred to his upcoming docuseries, The Sum of It All, as “a snapshot of grief, mental health, and depression.”
Elle King
In a now-deleted Instagram post from 2017, a musician shared that she was struggling with depression and PTSD. A year later, after her marriage ended, she spoke with People magazine and revealed that she had sought help from a specialist. She expressed gratitude for the help she received, stating that if she had not reached out, she might not be alive today. The musician hopes that by sharing her story, she can inspire others who feel alone to seek help and support.
Ellie Goulding
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“I started having panic attacks, and the scariest part was it could be triggered by anything. I used to cover my face with a pillow whenever I had to walk outside from the car to the studio. My new life as a pop star certainly wasn’t as glamorous as all my friends from home thought. Secretly, I was really struggling physically and emotionally,” the singer told Well + Good in 2017. “I still feel nervous before performing, or have pangs of anxiety from time to time, but it’s not crippling like it used to be.”
G Herbo
The rapper has been open about his own battle with PTSD, even writing a song about it on his 2020 album named PTSD. “I felt if a fan could be like, ‘Herb my favorite rapper and he suffers from PTSD, maybe I should try to figure out what makes me scared for my life every single day …’” he told Billboard that year of wanting to destigmatize mental health issues.
The Chicago artist then launched his non-profit Swervin’ Through Stress in May 2023 to help increase awareness of mental health. “Our community doesn’t talk about mental health enough,” Herbo told Billboard at the time. “With Swervin’ Through Stress, I really wanted to create a space where it’s OK for us to talk about what we’re going through. A lot of us can relate to each other’s struggles.”
Grimes
The artist revealed after she made a cameo on now-ex Elon Musk’s episode of Saturday Night Live that she had suffered a panic attack after the show. “Forgot to post these cuz I somehow caused myself to have a panic attack and went to the hospital yesterday which tbh was quite scary and I suppose it’s a good time to start therapy,” she shared along with photos of herself as Princess Peach next to musical guest Miley Cyrus in May 2021.
Halsey
The artist shared in Billboard’s March 2016 cover story that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder while in high school, and spent weeks in a psychiatric hospital her senior year. “I had tried to kill myself,” said Halsey, who is also a mental health advocate. “I was an adolescent; I didn’t know what I was doing. Because I was 17, I was still in a children’s ward, which was terrifying.”
In May 2020, the “I Am Not a Woman, I’m a God” singer participated in YouTube’s Artist Spotlight Stories, during which she did a deep dive with Dr. Snehi Kapur for Mental Health Awareness Month. During the discussion, the Grammy nominee also shared her mantra: “Achieving mental health doesn’t happen. Mental health isn’t a destination. You never arrive at mental healthy and go, ‘OK, I’m glad I got here.’”
She has also been outspoken for people to be more understanding of those who struggle with mental health issues. In July 2020, she tweeted: “I have dedicated my career to offering education and insight about bipolar disorder and I’m so disturbed by what I’m seeing. Personal opinions about someone aside, a manic episode isn’t a joke. If you can’t offer understanding or sympathy, offer your silence.”