National Recovery Month: Justin Bieber holds early fame responsible for every bad decision including drugs
Justin Bieber spoke openly about his past experiences with drug addiction for the very first time earlier this year. In an episode of his documentary series, 'Justin Bieber: Seasons,' released January 27, the 26-year-old pop star got candid about his past drug use, which began with smoking marijuana when he was "12 or 13." He had first revealed that he got enmeshed with “doing pretty heavy drugs,” on social media in 2019 and gave a brief account as to what triggered him to do so to legions of his fans.
The Canadian crooner said that he became heavily dependent on marijuana and later got involved with alcohol, lean (a mixture of codeine cough syrup, soda, and hard candy), taking pills, MDMA, psychedelic mushrooms, "everything.” So much so that he felt like he was dying, according to USA Today. "My security and stuff would come into my room at night to check my pulse," Bieber recalled. "People don't know how serious it got. It was legit crazy scary. I was waking up in the morning and the first thing I was doing was popping pills and smoking a blunt and starting my day. It just got scary."
He’s also been open about how early fame was overwhelming and how it took a toll on him. "Millions (of fans were) saying how much they loved me and how great I was," he wrote in an Instagram post last September. "You hear these things enough as a young boy and you actually start believing it... So by this point, I was 18 with no skills in the real world, with millions of dollars and access to whatever I wanted. This is a very scary concept for anyone."
In the same post, he had mentioned that it was difficult for him to get out of bed with the right attitude as he felt there was trouble after trouble and he had to face all of it and there were consecutive cycles of disappointments. He also was opened up about how by 20, he lost all the adoration and love that he earlier used to receive from people and people began to judge, ridicule and hate him. However, Bieber has moved past all of it and bounced back from all the terrible decisions he once made. He was a married man when he shared this post on his page and called his union with Hailey Bieber the best season of his life.
September 2020 marks the 31st year of National Recovery Month and with this column, we aim to tell the share the experiences of public figures and celebrities with mental disorders and substance abuse, to raise awareness and normalize asking for help.