Khalid's Candid Take on Mental Health

Six-time Grammy nominee Khalid has been open about the pressure and mental health issues he faced over his career. He first jumped into the music scene with the hit single "Location." He would garner even more success with the launch of his first album, "American Teen." Since then, his success has only grown, and his accolades have only increased.

Success does not exclude you from mental health issues. As we know, there is more to life than career success and money. Khalid has shown that even with success, anyone can suffer mental health knocks at times.

In the same vein, Khalid is living proof that we shouldn't shy away from talking about mental health issues. For ages, it's been taboo to talk about mental health issues in the black community. It was considered an issue exclusive to the privileged or the white community.

For a man who has had a meteoric in the world of music, accruing immense success and wealth, many would have thought that Khalid's life was all rosy and peachy. With his “American Teen” and “Roxy” Tour being smashing successes, many would think that nothing could knock Khalid down.

However, he is also human, and he can suffer mental health knocks, just like the next person.

In December 2017, Khalid came out in public about his anxiety. He first acknowledged the importance of mental health while revealing that he suffered from "super bad" anxiety. Writing on Twitter (now X), he said, "Mental health is so important man," followed by, "I'm not feeling the best rn and my anxiety is super bad, love u guys."

However, he also took the opportunity to encourage his followers to ride it out as it does get better, noting, "For the past few days I've been feeling very down about a lot of shit, and I just wanna let u know that if you struggle with any illness, I feel you. It gets better."

He closed the thread by announcing a break from Twitter. "I think I'm a take a break from this [platform]."

In 2018, he opened up again to his fans on Twitter about his struggles with social anxiety. He started by posting "Shout out to social anxiety," causing fans to ask if he was okay. He responded by posting "I'm good, deep breaths."

He later elaborated on his social anxiety, noting, "I want to make new friends but s–t… it's HARD. All this pressure in my chest, all the overthinking. You just end up staying inside and s–t because going out gets so difficult." He concluded by posting, "Making friends used to be so easy and, s–t, now I'm like… let me just go home."

Khalid has been open about his anxiety caused by being in the limelight. Importantly, he has spurred a conversation about mental health, as the replies to his posts indicate.