From the outside looking in, celebrities seems to have it all – money, expensive cars, luxurious mansions and adoration from millions of fans. But as T-Pain told HipHopDX Senior Writer Kyle Eustice in 2018, celebrities are often “the loneliest people in the world.”
During a recent interview for Facebook Watch, Big Sean got brutally honest about his mental health and admitted he’d contemplated suicide on numerous occasions — sometimes with a gun in his hand.
“I for sure contemplated suicide a lot of times, having guns in my hand, feeling it for real … planning it out to the point where I said, ‘Hey, if I do kill myself, at least my family will get this amount of money. I did this already,’” he told host Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. “Because I was just stressed out and not happy. I realized that OK, I need to stop everything I’m doing and figure this out or I’m going to self-destruct.
“I took the time off, canceled everything I was doing, sought therapy, connected with God more, spiritually grounded myself, and put myself first as a priority for the first time ever.”
Earlier in the clip, Sean Don explained being from Detroit, he felt pressure to keep going full-steam ahead, even to his own detriment. He admits he felt like he couldn’t really take a break to focus on his mental health for fear of being labeled a “bitch” or “soft.”
“Those are the stigmas that have been placed on us growing up,” he explained. “If you a man and you not working hard, it’s like, ‘Ah you getting soft.’ So that was always in the back of my head, so I’m working exhausting myself for years and years and years. I couldn’t get through the day without feeling terrible.
The new series – called One Question, One Mike — debuts on Wednesday (March 3) as part of Facebook Watch’s “We the Culture” programming, which is aimed at amplifying the voices of Black content creators.
Big Sean has been consistently open about his struggles with depression, initially sparked by his chart-topping 2015 album, Dark Sky Paradise.In 2019, he talked about overcoming anxiety in an Instagram video, saying, “I realized that it all started with me and I had to analyze myself. I couldn’t point the finger at anybody else, had to point it at myself, and you know nurture the relationships that were important to me, but most important nurture the relationship with myself.”
More recently, Sean showed off his dedication to maintaining his new fitness routine. On February 26, he posted string of photos to his Instagram account giving his 13 million followers a before-and-after look at his noticeably improved physique.