BIG SEAN OPENS UP ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH AND SEEKING THERAPY
On his 31st birthday, Big Sean is getting candid about mental health.
The Detroit rapper, who removed all his Instagram posts, returned to social media with a powerful message for fans. In the three minute-long video clips, two of which he titled “CLARITY” and “UNCONDITIONAL LOVE,” Sean reveals that he went through a difficult time last year around his 30th birthday that led him to therapy.
“Around this time last year, around my birthday, it was good for me, but it was wild for me too because I felt like something wasn’t all the way connecting with my energy,” he said. “I wasn’t feeling like myself and I couldn’t figure out why.”
Sean, who broke up with girlfriend Jhené Aiko last year, canceled his 2018 tour and stepped away from his career and personal life. “I stepped back from everything I was doing, from everything I had going on because somewhere in the middle of it, I just felt lost,” he continued.
He decided to seek therapy to find clarity in his life. “I started therapy. I got a good therapist. I was blessed enough to talk to some super spiritual people and they made me realize one thing that I was missing in my life. And one thing I was missing was clarity. Clarity about who was around me, what I was doing—even in music, which is my happiness, my joy, that was always an escape for me, was starting to feel like a burden.”
The experience made him reevaluate his personal relationships including that with his mother. “I had a lot of toxic relationships around me,” added Sean. “Even the relationship with my mom was getting to a point where we wasn’t talking like that and it was just weird ’cause that had never been like that with me and her.”
He realized that he needed to focus on himself and practice self-care. “I realized it all started with me and I had to analyze myself. I couldn’t point the finger at anybody else,” he said. “I started realizing that you can’t give or depend on somebody for love or a good time if you can’t give it to your self. I started doing things by myself and doing things I never thought I’d do, like going skydiving—whatever I thought was fun, just doing it.”
Through the process, he was able to find himself again and make the best music of his life. “I definitely rediscovered myself and found a whole new energy and me being a source of it, not somebody else,” he explained. “Then I started getting back to making the music and it started being fun again. I’m making the best music of my life.”
Sean ended his message with some advice for those who are facing their own mental health battles. “Put the energy back into yourself. Be clear about what you wanna do, who you wanna do it with. Just know it all translates to happiness. It feels good to be back at a higher level.”
Sean is now back in the studio working on new music, his first since 2017’s I Decided and Double or Nothing, his collaborative album with Metro Boomin.
Watch his three video messages above.
