A wake-up call. Meghan Trainor reflected on a terrifying moment in her life that led her to make an important decision about her well-being.
The “Nice to Meet Ya” singer, 26, opened up to Zane Lowe on Monday, February 3, about having a “mental breakdown” and “panic attacks live on television” while announcing the 2017 Grammy nominations in December 2016 alongside Gayle King. Trainor had recently released her album Thank You and was succumbing to the pressures of her demanding career despite everything being “great” in her life.
“I was reading the nominees for the Grammy’s the year after I won and I was shaking and I was like, ‘Please don’t collapse on TV right now. We’re live,’” she recalled on Apple Music’s Beats 1. “And as soon as they were like, ‘Cut,’ I fell and started scream-crying and couldn’t breathe. And later, they took me away.”
Trainor continued, “I was supposed to do more work and they were like, ‘We’re done. This is it.’ It was because I had, I can’t say who, but I had a lot of people tell me, like, ‘If you cancel on this 30-minute set, we’ll never play Meghan Trainor ever again.’ So I had everything. I had my Grammy, I had what people dream of for years. I had everything I ever wanted, and they were threatening to take it away.”
The “All About That Bass” artist admitted that she was also experiencing vocal problems from “working too much” and “finally collapsed physically and emotionally” as a result. Trainor’s breakdown and eventual hospitalization is what led her to realize the severity of her exhaustion.
“My mind was like, ‘No, I’ll keep going. I’ll keep going.’ And my body was like, ‘Bye.’ And my body had to tell me, instead of me being able to take a break,” she explained. “The saddest thing is, like, your whole team is in the hospital with you, like, ‘Everything’s gonna be OK.’ And … you cannot speak. I was alone with my thoughts for way too long and I blew up. I freaked out and I freaked out for a long time.”
In overcoming the scary experience, Trainor has come to understand the importance of self-care. The Massachusetts native also revealed that she’s learned to “believe” in and “love” herself.
Trainor, who dropped her latest album, Treat Myself, on January 31, spoke with Shondaland in February 2019 about her struggles with anxiety and depression. At the time, she opened up about an emergency room visit that occurred after she suffered a panic attack that made her throat feel as if it were closing.
“I thought I might be schizophrenic,” she admitted. “It was a really dark time when I let my brain control me. And I couldn’t research it or listen to other people talk about it or explain it myself because when I would talk about it, it would start to happen again.”
Trainor credited her husband, Daryl Sabara, and her family for helping her through the tough time, adding: “Daryl helped me a lot on being positive and meditating. And now I have a different perspective on everything. I realize I have a great job. We’re always like, ‘Don’t forget how awesome life can be!’”
