Cardi B and Missy Elliott Open Up About Dealing With Anxiety
Cardi B and Missy Elliott are doing what they can to eliminate the stigma surrounding anxiety. The pair opened up about their own battles with it, and bonded in the process on social media.
When Cardi tweeted “Anxiety is kicking my ass right now,” Elliott responded with empathy from her own experience with anxiety. “Many people deal with this,” she tweeted, adding, “I am one… it’s real… Yes it is a lot and I have things that trigger mines…it’s scary at times.”
After a fan suggested that Cardi turn to cannabis to help cope with her anxiety, she replied, “That will give more anxiety and make me very very paranoid.”
Cardi has talked about anxiety before. Last April, she opened up about dealing with anxiety around making music and expectations of what it would sound like. “Like, at first when I was doing music it was fun and I was so eager to get in the studio all the time,” she told Sirius XM. “Now, I get anxiety when I go to the studio because everybody is like expecting some crazy magic from me.”
She has also talked about experiencing depression. Last November, she went on Instagram Live to open up about it, saying, “I’ve been very depressed because I cannot stop losing weight. And it’s so crazy because when I first gave birth, I did everything to lose my baby weight… I don’t like looking too skinny. I used to look too skinny as a teenager and I used to hate it and I hate it now. It’s been really depressing me, making me sad. My weight… Sh-t is so stressful, not having no appetite at all…. I’m really trying to gain weight, y’all, and it’s been hard and I don’t know how.”
Likewise, Elliott has opened up about anxiety before. She talked about it after her performance at the 2015 Super Bowl, telling Billboard that prior to taking the stage she had “IVs in my arm, everything.” “Nobody knew,” she explained. “I said, ‘If I can get over this step, then I know all my dance steps will be on point’. I know it was nothing but the grace of God that lifted me up and took me through that performance.”