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Tag: Ellie Goulding

  • Ellie Goulding Describes Using Alcohol To Cope With Early Fame

    Ellie Goulding Describes Using Alcohol To Cope With Early Fame

    “I assumed I couldn’t be good enough, smart, funny, or crazy enough to be with certain people without it.”

    Ellie Goulding opened up about the way she used alcohol to cope during the start of her career on a recent episode of Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast.

    “I would say, ‘Right, I’ve got to drink this morning because I’ve got this interview and I don’t really know how to answer the questions, because I don’t really know who I am any more,’” the 32-year-old explained.

    Dealing With Fame

    Goulding rose to fame in 2010 with the release of her debut album, Lights. The album debuted at number one on the UK charts and the “Under the Sheets” singer went from a relative unknown to one of the biggest pop stars across the pond.

    The mounting pressure took its toll on the singer who began to use alcohol to bolster her famous persona.

    “I thought drinking would at least make me a bit more funny, or interesting,” Goulding said. “I had to be a fake person to deal with the surreal situation I was in. I assumed I couldn’t be good enough, smart, funny, or crazy enough to be with certain people without it.”

    While Goulding acknowledges the role that alcohol played in her life at the time, she maintains that she was not addicted to it.

    “I wasn’t an alcoholic,” she said. “I could go months without a drink, too.”

    Panic Attacks & Anxiety

    Goulding has been about the pressures of fame before. In 2017, she penned an essay for Well + Good chronicling the mental health struggles she faced as her fame began to rise.

    “I was thrilled, of course—sharing my music with the world was a dream I’d been working toward for years—but it was a lot all at once,” Goulding writes. “Suddenly I was living alone in London, and everything was happening so fast.”

    The life-altering experience brought on panic attacks for the singer. “The scariest part was it could be triggered by anything,” Goulding writes. “My new life as a pop star certainly wasn’t as glamorous as all my friends from home thought. Secretly I was really struggling physically and emotionally.”

    Goulding shares that the combination of a lack of self-confidence and the intense pressures of her career led to her mental health battles. “I think part of what sparked my panic attacks was not feeling confident enough to believe in myself—I was scared I wasn’t as good of a singer as everyone thought I was,” she writes. “And as the stakes grew, I was afraid of letting everyone, including myself, down.”

    Even performing was a struggle, she revealed, citing her performance at the 2016 Grammy Awards. Eventually, though, Goulding realized that she had to find confidence within herself in order to move forward. “I was annoyed for being paralyzed with nerves every time I was about to perform on television. I told myself that this was exactly where I was supposed to be and if other people believed in me, I had to start believing in myself,” she writes.

     

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Ellie Goulding Talks "Miserable" Exercise Addiction

    Ellie Goulding Talks "Miserable" Exercise Addiction

    The pop star touched on exercise addiction in a recent Instagram post.

    Singer Ellie Goulding addressed her experience with dependency on exercise, which she described as “not worth it.” 

    In a recent Instagram post, the Grammy-nominated singer shared a photo of herself, which was accompanied by text that in part read, “Ah good #memories of being addicted to the gym. Not worth it . . .” 

    Goulding, who has also struggled with panic attacks, said that while she continues to maintain an exercise regimen, she approaches it in an entirely different manner that encompasses boxing. 

    Goulding, whose most recent solo recording was the Top 20 UK single “Still Falling for You,” clarified what she meant about her previous exercise routine by adding, “It was just kind of miserable.” 

    According to a study by Northwestern University, approximately 3% of people who exercise on a regular basis have a dependency on exercise, which can be defined by physical or psychological symptoms like depression, anger or confusion brought on by missing a single day of exercise.

    In coverage of Goulding’s post Bustle cited Heather Hausenblas, a professor at Jacksonville University’s department of kinesiology, who noted that regular or even advanced levels of exercise don’t indicate an addiction to exercise.

    Rather, it’s the feelings that arise as a result of breaking the routine and the drive for people to change their lives in order to work out and quash those feelings that qualifies as a dependency.

    Goulding has mentioned that in the past, intense emotions have driven her to seek solace in music. “It was the ultimate companion – the strongest remedy for any kind of pain or sadness,” she said. “Often it was the only way I’d be able to say what I wanted to say or describe how I was feeling.”

    Exercise also became a means of contending with difficult emotions, including anxiety and panic attacks. But after a period of intensity – “I used to be harder on myself,” she told The CUT in 2018 – she has become better educated on healthy practices and feels “more confident than ever now, which is an amazing feeling.”

    “To work out is being respectful to your body,” noted Goulding. “It’s a way of paying back and saying thank you for keeping me alive and for giving me such an amazing opportunity to live and breathe.”

    View the original article at thefix.com