‘I was closing myself off from everybody’: Shawn Mendes opens up about anxiety battle

Shawn Mendes has opened up about his battle with anxiety, revealing that he was “closing myself off from everybody.”

The Lost in Japan singer, who has two chart-topping albums to his name, revealed the news in a podcast with The Sun.

The 19-year-old told how he has been dealing with the condition whilst achieving success in the spotlight, adding that he had spoken to a therapist to help manage it.

He said: “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.”

Mendes told how his latest single In My Blood centres around the topic of mental health which he hoped would “encourage others to be open.”

Speaking about the song he said: “What I have to do now is be very honest with myself and [be] 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.”

He added: “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.”