Meghan Trainor Just Opened Up About Her Battle With Depression and Anxiety (original) (raw)

Meghan Trainor is a force to be reckoned with: At 24, the artist has made a name for herself in the music industry by producing enigmatic, bubbly pop hits. But like an estimated 23 percent of American women who suffer from anxiety and 10 percent of women who experience depression, the singer recently revealed that she's also struggled with those mental health issues.

While speaking on The Dan Wootton Interview podcast this week, the singer opened up about a years-long battle with anxiety and depression—one that began, she said, after a serious issue with her vocal chords threatened to derail her budding music career.

"I thought, My God, is it going to be over for me forever?" she said during the interview. "I fell into a crazy, deep hole of depression and anxiety."

At its worst, Trainor said, it left the singer often feeling unable to even leave her home—remaining indoors for days on end. And as happens in some cases of depression, her psychological symptoms soon morphed into actual physical discomfort.

"I was crippled and had this pain. Eventually I was going to doctors, psychologists, and therapists, and I was like, 'My back feels like someone has a flame to it,'" Trainor said. At one point, the singer's anxiety even forced her to seek emergency medical attention. "I went to the emergency room one night," she said. "My throat was closing and I was having trouble breathing. They told me [it was] a full-blown panic attack."

The singer says she also felt torn between her bubbly public persona and her private one. "I was the poster child of 'I’m brave, and I love who I am, and I’m here,'" she says. "And [then] I was the opposite. I was crumbling in my bed, like, 'I want to stay here and get through.'"

While speaking on the podcast about her new, sexism-blasting single released Thursday, "No Excuses," Trainor added that she's begun to feel empowered again, thanks to both professional help and extensive personal research into depression.

"What I learned is [that] people have it and don’t talk about it," she explained.

For her, a combination of therapy and self-care contributed to helping Trainor feel like she was on the road to getting better. "Talking to a therapist teaches you: 'God, I wasn’t loving myself,'" she stated "[So] I took time off. I took time for me."

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