Kehlani shared that she entered treatment last year after being diagnosed with “multiple mental illnesses.”
During her visit to Big Boy’s Neighborhood on Thursday (November 20), the “Folded” singer opened up about her mental health journey and how she’s been juggling it alongside her music career.
“Last year, I was very gratefully diagnosed with multiple mental illnesses that I then got the help for and I’ve been in treatment for a year that allowed me to get the right medication combination, the right therapy combination, the right daily practices and really shifting my entire life around to navigate that,” Kehlani explained around the 22-minute mark of the interview.
“So, a lot of the things that would have really rocked me before don’t really rock me the same way,” she shared, though she admitted that anything that affects her deeply is still “triggering.”
“It’s kind of like it hits these certain parts of my diagnosis that if someone wasn’t famous they would be incredibly triggered by — and now I receive it at such a mass level,” she explained. “And beyond that, people will hold you to a part of your life that stood out to them. They don’t get to experience you enough to see how you’ve grown or where you’ve changed.”
Kehlani pointed out that “a whole lot can happen in a year,” especially after getting on the right medication, the right routine, and the right therapies.
She’s also learned she doesn’t always need to jump in and “clarify” things, especially when her words can easily get twisted and spark “a whole new problem online.”
“Now I’m in this thing where I’m like, ‘People are just going to talk, Kehlani,'” she said. “I just have to quiet the noise and take a step back. Let me talk to my therapist, my best friend, the people around me, let me talk to God — and focus on that being the mirror I look to, not the public.”
One of the personal situations that blew up online last year involved Javaughn Young-White, father of her six-year-old daughter, Adeya, who filed for custody. He claimed his name wasn’t on the birth certificate and raised concerns about a religious group Kehlani was once associated with.
Kehlani responded at the time by calling the accusations “incredibly hurtful, inaccurate, inappropriate, and simply untrue.”
“I wanted to take time to ensure that I responded to these accusations from a calm and considered space rather than a reactive one,” she said. “I strongly deny any claims I have put my child in harm’s way, or left my child alone with anyone deemed dangerous or unsafe.”
