On her show “The Talk,” former rapper turned talk show host Eve revealed that she suffered from anxiety disorder right around the time she became a famous rapper.
“For me with anxiety, fame is one of those things, it comes with being in the public light. But it’s really hard, and it can be very hard and nobody can teach you about that,” she said. “When I first started in the business I had horrible anxiety attacks, so much so that I was on medication. Only people that know me closely know this and it took a lot of years for me to get over it.”
Merriam-Webster defines anxiety disorder as a “persistent and exaggerated fear of social situations (such as meeting strangers, dating or public speaking) in which embarrassment or a negative judgment by others may occur and that causes significant distress,” which according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the most common type of mental disorder among the general population.
Eve also said worrying about maintaining her success fueled the condition, coupled with the fact that some in her personal life began to criticize her newfound success.
“When you’re hot and you’re popular, you never want to stop because you’re scared if you stop for one second everybody’s going to forget about you, so you work yourself crazy. Your management works you crazy. Your friends, your family, people change,” she explained. “They tell you that you’ve changed and you take that stuff to heart.”
At one point, things got so bad for the Philadelphia native she had an emotional breakdown during a big tour. According to Eve, it was brought on by a combination of exhaustion, deep worry and not being able to get over what her friends said about her.
“For me, at that time I was actually on a tour,” she recalled. “I will never forget this. I was in a hotel room and I got up to go to the bathroom. I heard this noise and it was me crying. It was a sound I had never heard from myself and I was balling, crying and I called my manager and was like, ‘I can not finish this tour. I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I’m not happy. I just want to be happy.’ I wasn’t happy, and you have all this stuff. I was exhausted. I was exhausted, but also my friends were also like, ‘You’ve changed.’”
Surely, a lot of people can relate to feeling the pressure of maintaining success, because if you score a well-paying job, for example, you may feel anxiety about keeping it and doing well.
That same kind of pressure has to be even bigger for a celebrity, who has millions of dollars at stake, much of their success in the hands of their audience and the added pressure of taking care of their families, employees and friends at times.
The New York rapper Young M.A talked about feeling pressure after she achieved a hit with “Ooouuu” in 2016. At the time, the New York rhymer was expected to be the next big female rap star, but that was until Cardi B swooped in with her smash “Bodak Yellow” and stole that attention away.
During her interview, M.A said the challenge of trying to stay on top was crippling for her, to the point where she had to step away from the limelight some.
“You do get a little uninspired at times when you’re dealing with pressure, because now you’re on. You’re known now,” she said. “So you’re thinking about not just making music, you’re thinking about [how] people gonna receive the music.”
But even though Cardi may have taken some of the attention away from Young M.A, she too felt the pressure of staying on top after “Bodak Yellow” hit. At one point, the Bronx rapper planned to drop her debut album in October of 2017 but has since delayed it because she’s worried about not being able to top herself.
“Every single time I think I got all the 10 songs I’m like, ‘I’m buggin. These ain’t it,'” said Cardi on “The Breakfast Club.” “It’s just like, damn I’m competing with myself. I’m competing with the No. 2 record [on the Billboard Hot 100] and stuff.”
Besides the pressure of trying to stay No. 1, other celebs have said the mere spotlight causes them great anxiety, like Steve Harvey, who said being famous drains him at times.
“I think the average person doesn’t know the pull of fame and exactly what it is and how taxing it is on you,” he explained. “You can never escape who you are. I’m Steve Harvey all the time, 24-7.”
My employees, they go home but when I go home I’m on the elevator as Steve Harvey, so when someone gets on the elevator [they say] ‘It’s him.’ When I go to the gym to stay fit I’m Steve Harvey, when I go to the grocery store with a baseball hat and a jogging suit I’m still Steve Harvey, then you pass by the newsstand and there you are and that’s a bit much sometimes.”
As far as Eve, she talked about getting professional treatment for her anxiety disorder and has since gotten it under control since she first learned of it.
