Pink wants fans to know that “it does get better” if they are dealing with mental health problems.
To mark Mental Health Awareness Month, Pink and the Child Mind Insitute debuted the new Dare to Share campaign where the “So What” singer opened up about dealing with anxiety throughout her life.
“I used to get pretty awful panic attacks and I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t have anybody to talk to about it and I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “I would feel like I was having strokes, like, stroke symptoms, it was terrifying.”
Pink would try and get through the feeling by sitting in her car or going to the emergency room.
“I had a number of EKGs that always led back to ‘You’re fine, you’re fine, there’s nothing wrong, you’re imagining it all, it’s all in your head,’” she explained. “Then I started seeing a therapist, and then I started doing all these things. I started learning all these steps on how to take care of myself, I’d never been taught how to take care of myself.”
Part of taking care of herself has included meditation, self-care products and “full moon ceremonies for women only.”
“Writing songs is probably the thing that has saved my life,” she said. “Writing in a journal, writing poetry, reading other people’s stories, being inspired. Exercise. Eating healthy. Cooking is like a meditation.”
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That “spiritual toolbox” is what Pink now reaches for when she feels “lost.”
“I encourage all of you to write, journal, talk to someone and start building your own spiritual toolbox and put people around you that remind you that you have it under the bed,” she concluded.
“I will tell you from being a very, very afraid 7, 8, 13, 23, 31, and now 42-year-old woman, it does get better and there are beautiful moments waiting for you and there are beautiful people waiting to love you, and one of those people is yourself.”
