With part of this new chapter in Adam Lambert’s career being to be clear on who he is, what he is, and what he’s not (which comes out on the tracks on his newest upcoming album, High Drama), Adam has opened up about his mental health on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast.
While he has has openly supported mental health campaigns, taking part in ITV’s Britain Get Singing in support of their Britain Get Talking campaign this December, his appearance on the Happy Place podcast marks Adam’s first time talking publicly about his struggles with anxiety, panic attacks, and his own mental health journey.
Adam told Fearne Cotton on the Happy Place podcast:
“I had my fair share of different anxiety triggers over the years, but I didn’t know to call it that. I didn’t realize that is what I was dealing with. I thought I was just busy or stressed and the more I started reading about things and then doing some therapy and talking to people, I was like ‘oh wow, I have anxiety.’ One of the things that’s difficult is you’re on tour and you want to deliver at the same level every night, and if some night you’re feeling a little bit off or down or not as much energy, you start beating yourself up.”
“I think early on, with the Queen stuff and with touring on my own, with all this anxiety that I was dealing with, the other thing I was using to deal with it, probably incorrectly, was alcohol. I was drinking too much. It never got to the point where I felt like I was out of control. It’s just a fine line of how much is too much.”
“I think one of the things I realized about all of it, is that part of the issue is that staying in your own head is isolating. If you’re isolating yourself, you’re not doing yourself any favors for this issue. So, like Britain Get Talking says, the more I talk with other people about how they feel, all of a sudden I feel a lot better.”
“And I started getting really in my head during performances and being really hard on myself. But what was happening was, instead of being that clear, I was projecting that anxiety onto an inanimate object, which was the sound mix. I was displacing actually looking in the mirror at myself and putting it on something I could blame and control, putting it on something that was outside of me. And I didn’t realize it for years. But I found out, in doing some therapy and stuff, this is common, in many cases, for people that aren’t entertainers too, to find something outside of you, cause you don’t want to deal with looking in the mirror, and that’s self-protective.’
You can listen to the full interview on Adam’s episode, which was released in December 2022, here
You can also watch the interview below:
Pre-order High Drama here: AdamLambert.lnk.to/HighDrama