Thank You, Shawn Mendes, for Bringing Attention to Anxiety

Dear Shawn Mendes,

Thank you.  Thank you for your honesty and vulnerability.  Thank you for using your “celebrity” to show the world that anxiety is not to be kept as a secret.  Thank you for sharing the realness of your situation.  As the mom of a 13-year-old girl, suffering from severe anxiety, I have witnessed her feeling different, weird, alone, slowly losing her outgoing, fun, spunky, social personality.  She has withdrawn into a shell of herself, with no friends or social life anymore.  She worries that this is her future.

I vividly remember a few weeks ago when she told me she had heard your song for the first time.  At that point, I had not heard “In My Blood” yet.  I knew who you were and had heard most of your songs.  My kids are big fans and we often found our selves singing along to your songs while in the car.  On this particular day, my daughter and I were riding in the car when “In My Blood” came on the radio.  She turns to me and says, “Mom this song comes on every time I am anxious and I feel like it is talking to me”.  I sat there listening to her and the music trying to understand exactly what she was explaining to me.  I quickly turned up the radio and really listened to the lyrics.  We discussed the song once it ended and she was so excited because she truly felt like your song was talking to her.  She was excited to know that you, as someone she looks up to as a singer and (she is 13 so of course she thinks you are adorable) she sees you on stage singing, in pictures, and in interviews looking  “normal/free of anxiety”.  Your song and subsequent interviews have provided us with many opportunities to discuss how anxiety doesn’t have to stop you from being who you are or reaching your goals or putting yourself out there.  Anxiety certainly makes it harder, yet you show the world that there are ways to handle it and get on with greatness even after experiencing a bout of darkness.  For that, I am extremely grateful.  Since that song, I have made sure to share with her your interviews where you open up about your struggles.  It makes her feel less alone.  Of course my daughter benefits from your honesty and openness, but equally important, I hope her peers hear this song and see your interviews and think about either themselves, if they are dealing with such feelings, or they can think of others, like my daughter, and have a better idea of what she is dealing with and why she has such a hard time being at school, for example.  I hope it normalizes some of her thoughts and actions when she is around her peers.

I make an effort to share these types of interviews and articles with J…interviews with Demi Lovato, Ryan Reynolds, Carson Daly, and non-celebrities who open up about their battles with anxiety.  It helps her feel less alone and less “different”.   She can see these people appearing free of anxiety, doing something amazing and being successful in their lives while still dealing with anxiety.  She can see that with the right therapy for her, she can control her anxiety, rather than it controlling her, and move forward.  Anxiety is not unique to her, she is not alone, success and happiness still exist, life continues to move forward.

Shawn, and everyone else who shares their story…  Thank you for sharing your story.  Thank you for helping to de-stigmatize anxiety.  Thank you for keeping it real and being honest.  Thank you for providing a song that is hopeful and relatable to those going through similar situations.

Sincerely,

An Appreciate Mother

Lyrics to “In My Blood”