*Hip-hop icon Method Man is speaking about his mental health journey and battling depression in the new issue of Men’s Health magazine.
The rapper/actor (born Clifford Smith, Jr.) was battling depression at the same time he was coming up in the music industry.
“It went from this childhood joy to this euphoric feeling of celebrity to feeling inadequate and not good enough. That’s where the depression and stuff came in,” he tells Men’s Health. “And not even knowing that I’ve been depressed since I was a youngster. A lot of PTSD I had never dealt with before started resurfacing.”
“I was my own shadow, meaning I was in my own way,” the Wu-Tang Clan member said in May during a new discussion with Kevin Hart on the “Gold Minds” podcast, AllHipHop reports.
“I had to get out of my own way. I saw that I could not control the people around me, but I could control myself,” Method Man continued.
As Men’s Health reports, outside influences had a negative impact on his mental state, Method Man admits.
“I didn’t think it would bother me that much, but it did — people’s opinions,” the 52-year-old Grammy winner told the publication. “In hindsight, you delve deeper into your psyche and see where certain things come from. I just wasn’t a happy person.”
Method Man said he changed his outlook and his social circle as part of his bounce-back process.
“It reached a point where misery was loving company, and the people around me were just as miserable. So, it kind of fits. Then I got tired of it and did not want to be around miserable people anymore. I just wanted to see light. I wanted everything light. Forget the darkness.”
In order to move forward, Method Man had to look within himself.
“Self-love; it’s simple as that. Looking yourself in the mirror and honestly saying that you love yourself. But it’s one thing to say and then another to go and do it,” the “Power Book II: Ghost” star explained to Men’s Health. “Show that you love yourself. That’s all I’ve been doing. What people see now is just happiness.”
READ MORE: Method Man Opens Up About His Mental Health Journey
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