J. Balvin is getting candid about his struggle with anxiety and depression.
During an interview this week on the "En La Sala with Becky G" podcast, the Latin music superstar, 35, recalled a time several years ago when he got so depressed that he laid in bed for five days "waiting to die."
"I was just crying for no reason," said the Colombian-born reggaeton singer. "Didn’t want to wake up, didn’t want to eat, didn't even want to live — and I didn't know why."
Balvin, who was born José Álvaro Osorio Balvín, said at the time his mental health issues made him feel alienated from others. "You lose hope and you feel strange at every place you go. You feel like you're outside of your body," he recalled.
The singer added that he couldn't understand at the time why he was struggling with depression as his career was exploding.
After seeking help from a "shrink" and getting on medication, Balvin began to understand that he's hardly alone in dealing with mental health issues. Now he wants his fans to know they aren't alone either.
"It's okay not to be okay," he told listeners. "I understand you, I feel you. I feel what you feel, you know? You might be having your 'best moment in life' and you're feeling like s---. I feel you, I've been there. I'm going to that right now," he said. "But I still got this faith that everything is going to back to normal. I'm disciplined. I take my medication."
Balvin blamed the stigma around mental illness on "bad information."
"People think just because they don't have it, they think that it's something that doesn't exist," he said.
Becky G, 23, shared a snippet from the pair's candid conversation on Instagram, and thanked Balvin for "being so open & honest."
"Mental health is something that’s very important to me & something I’ve personally struggled with. I know many of us have," she wrote.