“I’ve been committed twice since [I became] Halsey, and no one’s known about it,” the singer revealed in a recent Rolling Stone interview.
Singer Halsey revealed that she has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital twice since becoming famous in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. She had been able to successfully hide both stays from the public but decided to open up about her experiences and how her mental illness affects her songwriting.
“Halsey says that the album she’s currently working on is ‘the first I’ve ever written manic,’” writes Alex Morris. “Her ferocious writing process has been the same. ‘She’ll be like, “OK, I’m gonna go smoke a cigarette,” and literally when she comes back the song is done,’ marvels producer Benny Blanco.”
Her upcoming third studio album, set to be released sometime this year, will be “hip-hop, rock, country, f*****g everything — because it’s so manic. It’s soooooo manic. It’s literally just, like, whatever the f**k I felt like making; there was no reason I couldn’t make it,” says Halsey.
According to the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, bipolar disorder affects 2.6% of the adult U.S. population. There’s also quite a long list of celebrities with the disorder, including Demi Lovato, Sinead O’Connor, and Mariah Carey.
Halsey was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when she was 17, shortly after a suicide attempt that resulted in her first stay in a psychiatric hospital. Thankfully, the visit was successful, and Halsey’s musical career launched not long after. Since then, she’s taken an active role in managing her mental health.
“I’ve been committed twice since [I became] Halsey, and no one’s known about it,” she said in the interview. “But I’m not ashamed of talking about it now. It’s been my choice. I’ve said [to my manager], ‘Hey, I’m not going to do anything bad right now, but I’m getting to the point where I’m scared I might, so I need to go figure this out.’ It’s still happening in my body. I just know when to get in front of it.”
In a 2018 interview with Elle, she even talked about embracing her disorder because it helps her to feel and experience deep empathy.
“The thing about having bipolar disorder, for me, is that I’m really empathetic,” she said. “I feel everything around me so much. I feel when I walk past a homeless person, and I feel when my friend breaks up with someone, or I feel when my mom and my dad get into a fight and my mom’s f****n’ crying over dishes in the sink.”
Halsey also revealed that she’s given up drugs and alcohol due to the fact that she has so many responsibilities and people who rely on her, including employees with children. “I just can’t be out getting f***ed up all the time,” she says.
