Justin Bieber may be a pop superstar, but he’s well aware of his faults.
The “What Do You Mean” singer wrote a revealing Instagram post on Monday, shedding light on how fame has had a negative effect on him.
“You see I have a lot of money, clothes cars, accolades, achievements, awards and I was still unfulfilled. Have u noticed the statistics of child stars and the outcome of their life?” he wrote while discussing the success he achieved as a teenager.
“I went from a 13 year old boy from a small town to being praised left and right by the world with millions saying how much they loved me and how great I was," he wrote. "I don’t know about you but humility comes with age.”
Writing that people catered to his every whim and that “I never even learned the fundamentals of responsibility,” the 25-year-old singer admitted there’s a dark side to being so famous at such a young age.
"I was 18 with no skills in the real world, with millions of dollars and access to whatever I wanted,” he wrote. “This is a very scary concept for anyone. By 20 I made every bad decision you could have thought of and went from one of the most loved and adored people in the world to the most ridiculed, judged and hated person in the world!"
Bieber said he got into drugs as a way to cope, but it came at a deep price.
"I started doing pretty heavy drugs at 19 and abused all of my relationships. I became resentful, disrespectful to women, and angry. I became distant to everyone who loved me, and I was hiding behind, a shell of a person that I had become," he wrote. "I felt like I could never turn it around. It's taken me years to bounce back from all these terrible decisions, fix broken relationships, and change relationship habits. Luckily god blessed me with extraordinary people who love me for me.”
Bieber is grateful to have come out of the experience a better person, something he credits wife Hailey for helping him achieve.
“Now I am navigating the best season of my life ‘MARRIAGE'!!” he wrote. “Which is a an amazing crazy new responsibility. You learn patience, trust, commitment, kindness, humility and all of the things it looks like to be a good man."
Bieber has been very open about his personal demons. In March, he wrote on Instagram that he has "been struggling a lot."
A few weeks after that post, he let his fans know he was planning to take a break from music.
“I have been looking, seeking, trial and error as most of us do, I am now very focused on repairing some of the deep rooted issues that I have as most of us have, so that I don’t fall apart, so that I can sustain my marriage and be the father I want to be,” he wrote. “Music is very important to me but Nothing comes before my family and my health.”