LeAnn Rimes is opening up about her struggles with mental health.
The “How Do I Live” singer, 39, spoke to Insider this week about how feeling like she needed to be “superhuman” as a performer exacerbated her physical and mental health issues — that included pushing herself to get onstage even while she was ill.
“Being in the public eye from the time I was very young and having to override my humanness I think was a huge part of my experience with anxiety and depression and what was triggering it,” Rimes explained, adding that she was in a “dark place” and had “never been alone” to deal with her issues.
The Northern Lights actress, who hosts the mental health-focused podcast Wholly Human, shared that she checked into a treatment center when she was 30.
“It was just time,” she said. “It was time for me to break away from my deep codependency and to figure out what was chemically going on to be able to take care of myself.”
Now, Rimes — who first rose to fame as a teenager — explained that she seeks out balance in her life, which includes taking more time to release new music.
“I’m much more aware of my own needs and desires and limitations,” she noted, “and I structure my life around that, instead of allowing it to structure me.”
In July 2021, Rimes spoke to USA Today about overcoming her past challenges.
“I can look back and recognize, I think, how much I have survived,” she shared. “The traumatic parts of it kind of outshadow and outweigh the success and all the accomplishments, so it’s nice to kind of look back and have a have a balanced view of both sides of things.”
She also explained how vital it was to seek professional help in a 2020 interview with The Tamron Hall Show.
“It was the best gift I could’ve given myself. I constantly had people around me my whole life, whether it be parents, my ex-husband, a manager or agent — all the world’s eyes were on me constantly,” she said of seeking treatment. “Talk about codependency. I had never been alone really until being in treatment for anxiety and depression.”
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