Kid Cudi Shares More About His Time in Rehab and Gives an Update on His Lifelong Mental Health Journey
Grammy-award-winning rapper Kid Cudi is getting real about his journey with mental health. The “Pursuit of Happiness” rapper recently shared more about his time in rehab. He called it a “necessary pause” amid his nonstop lifestyle.
Kid Cudi’s experience with mental health
Kid Cudi has been transparent about his lifelong battle with anxiety and depression in recent years. Fans praised his vulnerability, as the music industry is generally closed-off regarding nuanced conversations about mental health.
In 2016, Cudi announced via Facebook that he checked into a Malibu rehabilitation facility for depression and suicidal thoughts.
He wrote: “Anxiety and depression have ruled my life for as long as I can remember and I never leave the house because of it… I don’t trust anyone because of it and I’m tired of being held back in my life. I deserve to have peace. I deserve to be happy and smiling.”
After leaving rehab, the artist opened up about addiction in his 2021 Prime Video documentary. A Man Named Scott developed as a direct result of his poor mental health.
“I had just started using [cocaine] again, not happy with myself that I allowed myself to go back to that after all these years,” Cudi said. “I was just really ashamed. I was suicidal, and I was at a place where I was trying to plan it. And I knew that if I didn’t go get help, that something would have happened … I just had to get my s*** together.
Kid Cudi’s journey to healing
In June, the New York-Presbyterian Youth Anxiety Center celebrated its 11th year helping vulnerable youth with depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues. Celebs including Cudi, Anna Wintour, and Tory Burch attended, as reported by Glamour.
While speaking with Vogue editor Chioma Nnadi, Cudi revealed that he initially acknowledged his anxiety and depression a few years after his father died, around 15.
“My father passed when I was 11, and things started to slowly get bad after that,” Cudi said of his upbringing. “It was one of those things where it was just like: How do you come up to Mom who’s dealing with four kids, and your dad died, and she’s taking care of everybody on her own, that you’re dealing with something?”
The “Day ‘n’ Nite” singer admitted that he turned to drugs and alcohol to help numb the pain. When his addiction started to spiral out of control, he knew he had to seek professional help to begin healing.
Cudi explained, “That was what really scared me straight to the point where I said I needed to go get help…I want to live for my daughter, for my family, for my friends, for my fans. I want to live; I want this for myself. So, I made the choice for the first time in my life to go get help for what I didn’t understand.”
Kid Cudi’s talk at the 2022 New York-Presbyterian Youth Anxiety Center Dinner
In addition to talking about his personal journey with mental health, Cudi also shared the things that helped him get through difficult times: self-reflection, setting boundaries on social media, and being a dad to his daughter, Vada.
At the event, Cudi told guests that rehab helped him set healthy boundaries around work. “Since rehab, I’ve been pacing myself with work. For example, I don’t drop an album every year anymore; I do it every other year,” he said.
He also checks up on his 12-year-old daughter regarding her social media use. He’s very conscious of the damaging effects the internet can have on teens’ well-being.
“You can get online one morning, having a great day — the birds are chirping, you just had breakfast, you just worked out, everything’s cool — and you get on Twitter and you’ll see some s–t that’ll just rock your day,” Cudi said of his social media habits. “So, sometimes I have to take a step back and give myself that space because I just know at any given moment I can see something that could mess up my mood.”
Cudi concluded by speaking about Vada, sharing his optimism for the next generation. He said: “How open she is to everything—this is the taste of the next generation. She accepts me as wild and rock and roll as I am.”
