Yo Yo Honey Singh has battled mental health issues in the past, and has been quite vocal about his struggle with bipolar disorder. In a recent interview, the singer-rapper opened up on how the treatment for the condition took a toll on him not just mentally, but also physically, including him gaining weight and losing all his hair.
Yo Yo Singh shared that the first signs of his condition appeared when he was judging a music reality show and also touring across the USA with actor Shah Rukh Khan. “I was getting suspicious thoughts that I will die,” he said on ABtalks podcast, adding that he was so paranoid and scared that he avoided going on stage. “I was feeling that I will die on stage and I was thinking how can I skip it, so I shaved half of my head, but they said we will make you wear the cap. I was like people are not understanding.”
His mental condition led him to leave a stage performance midway, and what followed was his long battle with bipolar disorder. “I stayed inside my house for seven years. I didn’t want my fans to see me in that condition. I locked myself inside and didn’t even meet my childhood friends. There was no communication, no phone calls, no TV, no internet. People used to think the devil was talking to me,” he shared, adding, “Bipolar disorder takes you into destructive thoughts that are not real, but it makes you feel like they are actually happening.”
{{/usCountry}}His mental condition led him to leave a stage performance midway, and what followed was his long battle with bipolar disorder. “I stayed inside my house for seven years. I didn’t want my fans to see me in that condition. I locked myself inside and didn’t even meet my childhood friends. There was no communication, no phone calls, no TV, no internet. People used to think the devil was talking to me,” he shared, adding, “Bipolar disorder takes you into destructive thoughts that are not real, but it makes you feel like they are actually happening.”
{{/usCountry}}By 2018-19, Singh’s condition worsened and he believed he was “already dead”. He revealed that the medications that he was taking for seven years weren’t showing results, so he decided to go for a change. “I started recovering within four weeks. In just four weeks, I started meeting people and facing life again.” But the heavy medication through the years had lasting physical effects: “I was on heavy medication for seven years. I became 105 kilos because of it, and I lost my hair completely. This is fake hair, I am totally bald. This is a wig.”
The singer admitted that despite quitting drugs in 2014, recovery still took a long time and caused a lot of pain. “Even after I stopped doing drugs in 2014, it still took me seven to eight years to recover,” he said, sharing that it all showed results and he is better now: “I came out burnt and exhausted, but I feel okay now. I thank God this happened to me in my early 30s because I was still able to make a comeback.”