Michelle Williams Reveals She Was Suicidal During Destiny’s Child Days
For Michelle Williams, Destiny's Child's "Survivor" was a case of art imitating life.
In a new interview with The Talk, Williams said she credits Demi Lovato with being so transparent about mental health, and said she, herself, was suffering for a long time with depression, but didn't know how to properly identify her condition.
"I didn't know until I was in my 30s what was going on," Williams said. "I just thought it was growing pains. I just thought, 'I'm turning into a woman.' I've been suffering since the ages of between 13 and 15. At that age, I didn't know what to call it."
Williams said she also got pressure from executives to essentially suck it up and keep pressing forward, even though she felt like she was sinking.
"I'm in one of the top-selling female groups of all time, suffering with depression," she recalled. "When I disclosed it to our manager at the time, bless his heart, he was like, 'Y'all just signed a multi-million dollar deal and you're about to go on tour. What do you have to be depressed about?' So I was like, 'Oh, maybe I'm just tired.'"
Then, Williams admitted that at the height of her condition, she was suicidal.
"I was to that place where it got so dark and heavy because sometimes you feel like, 'I'm the provider, I take care of people. I'm not supposed to be feeling this way. What do I do?' And I wanted out," she continued.
Nowadays, though, Williams is doing well, and said "It's off. It's released. I've released it."
"Depression doesn't mean lazy. Self-harm doesn't mean you want attention. It's not any of that," she said.
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