Shawn Mendes opens up about feeling ‘overwhelmed and overstimulated’: ‘Most of the time it’s a struggle’

Shawn Mendes is pouring his heart out to his fans.

On Tuesday, the “When You’re Gone’ singer shared a lengthy post on Twitter where he opened up about the anxieties he’s been facing in recent weeks.

“Sometimes I ask myself what it is that I should be doing with my life and what I always hear in return is ‘to tell the truth, to be the truth’ I feel like that’s a hard thing to do though,” he wrote. “I’m afraid that if people know and see the truth they might think less of me. They might become bored of me.”

He continued, “So in those moments of feeling low I either put on a show or hide. The truth, in current form is a 23-year-old who constantly feels like he’s either flying or drowning. Maybe that’s just what it is to be in your 20s [I don’t know], or maybe that’s just me.

“The truth is I really do wanna show up in the world as my 100% true honest unique self and not care what anyone thinks, sometimes I do!!” Mendes said. “Sometimes I really don’t care what people think and I feel free. Most of the time it’s a struggle tho. That’s the truth.”

Mendes also acknowledged that “even with so much success” in his professional life, he still finds it difficult to “feel like [he is] not failing.

“Hyper focused on what I don’t have, forgetting to see all that I do. The truth is I’m overwhelmed and overstimulated,” he explained. “The truth is ALSO that I’m OK. I’m just tryna tell and be the truth. I like to think that maybe me saying this might resonate with some people.”

The singer’s post received a string of supportive messages from fans, many of whom applauded his honesty.

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Following the response, Mendes felt it necessary to circle back and remind folks that he is OK but felt the impulse to share what he was feeling at the moment.

“I’m honestly so OK!” he said in a follow-up tweet. He also acknowledged all of his “blessings,” saying that if he can still feel this way, “there must be so many people feeling this” and that he doesn’t “want them to feel alone.”

Mendes’s note comes five months after he and Camila Cabello announced their breakup after dating for more than two years. The singer has been open about the pain he’s felt post-split.

In March, he spoke about struggling not having Cabello around, addressing those feelings in his new single in a viral Twitter video.

“You don’t realize when you’re breaking up with someone … all the s*** that comes after it,” he said. “Which is like, who do I call when I am, like, in a panic attack, who do I call when I am, like, f***ing on the edge, you know? And I think that’s the reality that kind of hit me. I’m on my own now. Now I feel like finally I am actually on my own and I hate that … that’s my reality.”

Mendes later addressed the breakup on SiriusXM Morning Mash Up in April, during which he reflected on his experience and how the breakup changed him.

“I think for me, a lot of it was about giving myself a lot of grace and not being too hard on myself about the feelings and the kind of spikes of I’m good and spikes of I’m not good,” he said.

“I think a big one for me was realizing that there’s so many people in my life that I can rely on,” he explained. “I don’t just have to put all of my hardship onto one person. And I think like that, that was a huge thing. It was, it was learning how to trust my friends again, learning how to trust my family, learning how to trust people around me in my life. Instead of just calling one person, I had now six people I could call and balancing out that. And, in the same way, it was a lot of deep breaths and, and telling myself like, ‘You’re good, man,’ you know? ‘You got this.'”

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