“All Pain Is Temporary” Shawn Mendes Opens Up About His Battle With Anxiety
20 April 2018, 11:00
Shawn revealed how he got through it.
He might be one of the world’s biggest pop stars with legions of fans, but one thing most people haven’t known about Shawn before was that he has faced his own struggles with anxiety.
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Shawn revealed to the tabloids that he sought therapy to help him combat his anxiety after shooting to fame and still only being the tender age of 19. He explained, “I spoke to a therapist a couple of times.
“Therapy is what works for you . . . climbing a mountain. Therapy is listening to music and running on the treadmill, therapy is going to dinner with your friends - it’s something that distracts you, that helps you heal and so it just depends on what you think therapy is.
“I made a conscious effort to be more connected to the people in my life. I found I was closing myself off from everybody, thinking that would help me battle it, then realising the only way I was going to battle it was completely opening up and letting people in.”
Shawn opened up about his struggles with his mental health on his hit song ‘In My Blood’ where he sings, “Help me, it’s like the walls are caving in, sometimes I feel like giving up, no medicine is strong enough, someone help me.”
Shawn revealed that he hopes speaking out about his anxiety battles will help others, explaining, “What I have to do now is be very honest with myself and honest about what I’m talking about.
“Make something as serious as anxiety tangible where everybody can listen to it and either connect with it or understand it.
“All pain is temporary, and the thing is with anxiety, and why it’s such a hard thing for people who don’t have it to understand, is that it is very random and it hits you at moments you don’t expect it.
“Sometimes it lasts two hours, sometimes it lasts a day and sometimes it lasts five minutes. The point of the song is that no matter how long that lasts, you can come out the other end stronger and you come out of the other end always.
“People forget how important it is to talk to your family and to talk to your friends about what’s going on in your life, because the more you tell people how you feel, the more you understand how you feel and you have more control of your emotions.”
Shawn also credited his family and friends for helping keep his feet on the ground, “If I let myself worry about all of the small things that came with that then I would go crazy, but I spend my time thinking about the really big problems and the really big issues with me.
“And then on the other hand, I have an incredible team around me. My people that I tour with and my friends and family, I’m so close with that and it would feel if you were in a room with me and my family and friends you would feel that nobody would know I was famous and it wouldn’t matter.”
Talking about mental health is so important – and fans knowing that even their idols face the same struggles will no doubt help open the conversation up even further.
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