Shawn Mendes Bravely Discusses Anxiety Battle On Stage: ‘This Is My First Day Without Medication’

8 April 2019, 11:12 | Updated: 8 April 2019, 16:25

Shawn Mendes opened up about his battle with anxiety live on stage
Shawn Mendes opened up about his battle with anxiety live on stage. Picture: Getty

Shawn Mendes’ latest admission about his anxiety battle was met with extensive praise as the pop star performed his first show in a year without medication.

Shawn Mendes is currently in the midst of his global tour, a venture which the ‘In My Blood’ singer is no stranger to – but that doesn’t mean the 20 year old hasn’t found the continuous performances difficult.

In fact, Shawn gets so nervous for his live shows he has needed medication to calm him for over year – but at a recent concert on April 6 the heartthrob revealed he was without the medicine for the first time in months.

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Opening up about his battle with anxiety and pre-show nerves, Shawn told fans: “As a performer you get very nervous, sometimes you freak out and things can become a lot for you. And there’s medicine and things you can do to help and I meditate and I do a lot of things.

“There’s a medicine called beta blockers and basically it’s a very calm medicine, but what it does is it slows your heart rate down so you can be less stressed out and calm down and breathe, but nevertheless it’s medicine and I want you guys to know that for the last year I’ve been taking the medicine that’s been slowing down my heart rate so that I can be calm on stage.”

To huge cheers from proud fans, Shawn continued: “I want you guys to know because I think it’s important you know it’s my very first day back without that medicine.”

The singer then told his fans how much he loves them, adding: “If you get nervous it means you care and I care about nothing more in the world than you guys, so that’s why my hands shake.”

He then asked the thousands of concertgoers for their help as he shakily began his next song.

So you consider yourself a Shawn Mendes fan do you? Well, unless you've been living under a rock, you'll already know that Shawn is in the UK all this week and we've got a chance for you to go and see him AND hook up with him backstage in Birmingham, Leeds or London. For all the information on how to enter, take a look here.

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