Chappell Roan says she's been diagnosed with major depression, but she doesn't feel sad.
The “Good luck, baby!” The singer-songwriter, who was just named best new artist at the MTV VMAs, says The Guardian She is “in therapy twice a week” while on the road on her Princess Midwest tour. The trek currently has her in London (September 21), with a stop in Berlin next (September 23) before returning to the US for a handful of shows, starting with New York's All Things Go festival in September. 28.
“I went to a psychiatrist last week because I was like, I don't know what's going on,” Roan shared with the publication for a profile released on Saturday.
“He diagnosed me with severe depression – which I didn't think I had because I'm not really sad,” she said. “But I have all the symptoms of someone who is severely depressed.”
Roan's symptoms included cerebral palsy, forgetfulness, poor focus and “a very dull outlook.”
“I think it's because my whole life has changed,” she said of her current symptoms. “Everything I really like to do now comes with baggage. If I want to save, I have to book and prepare myself that this will not be normal. Going to the park, pilates, yoga — how do I do that in a safe way where I'm not going to be stalked or harassed?''
Later in the article, she said that “every time I walk through my front door, it just comes out of me… I can't even help it, I just start sobbing and either be so mad at myself for choosing this path, either I'm sorry how the curiosity and pure wonder I had about the world was kind of taken away from me.”
The advantage of fame: the opportunity it brings. “I feel other people's energy. It's so nice to have shows so full and to have so much joy in the room,” he said.
Roan — whose debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princessreached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and who has seen seven songs on the Hot 100 chart in just the last five months — he's not alone in experiencing complicated feelings about fame (“I've been warned I'd love to go back to adolescence,” he said The Guardian. “My body feels different. It holds the tension in a very different way: I have all these new feelings and I'm really confused”). She's bonded with her peers in the industry because of the pressure that comes with such a sudden rise, meeting with Sabrina Carpenter and texting Lorde for advice.
“We're both going through something so difficult,” Roan said of Carpenter recently Rolling Stone cover, sharing that the “Espresso” producer “feels like everything is flying by, and she can barely wait.”
Roan was also open about how she feels about her fans. In August, she wrote a statement on Instagram about setting boundaries with those who engage in “predatory behavior (disguised as 'superfan' behavior) that has been normalized because of how women in the know have been treated in the past.”
“I embrace the success of the project, the love I feel and the gratitude I have. What I don't accept is creepy people touching and stalking them,” she wrote.
The singer-songwriter, now 26, has also been open about his mental health struggles before fame. Roan was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder at the age of 22.
She described her childhood experience in an interview last year at the University of Southern California Daily Trojan: “Being bipolar, I was so depressed as a little kid and so angry. You just think you are such a bad person and you don't realize that you are really sick and need help and our parents don't know how to deal with it. I think it's like rewiring my brain to say, “Actually, you're a good person and you create a safe space and music for people to dance to.”
In 2022, she posted on Instagram about her bipolar II disorder, telling fans “it's really hard to keep it together” and balancing work and fan commitments with her treatment schedule. He noted, “I don't talk about it a lot, but it affects me every day and it's a pretty big part of my music.” In 2023, he wrote about it again on Instagram: “I'm very lucky and grateful to have my dream job,” she said, but added, “This job is very difficult for me to process and maintain a healthy life and mindset. I already have difficulty regulating my emotions because I have bipolar disorder 2.”
Read Roan's latest chat with The Guardian here. You can find Roan's upcoming tour dates here tour/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener nofollow”>official website.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/chappell-roan-severe-depression-diagnosis-midwest-princess-tour-1235781207/
