Kanye West has been struggling with bipolar disorder for years, but now the rapper is opening up about what life with the mental illness is really like. The “Jesus Walks” rapper talked to David Letterman on his show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, about the illness and how he’s trying to handle it.
“If you don’t take medication every day to keep you at a certain state, you have a potential to ramp up and it can take you to a point where you can even end up in the hospital,” he said, explaining that’s how he ended up saying some of his most controversial comments in the press.
“When you ramp up, it expresses your personality more. You can become almost more adolescent in your expression,” the 41-year-old told the talk show host. “This is my specific experience that I’ve had over the past two years, because I’ve only been diagnosed for two years now.”
Click through the gallery to find out everything Kanye had to say about his illness and how he’s doing now.
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Photo credit: MEGA
“When you’re in this state, you're hyper-paranoid about everything. Everyone — this is my experience, other people have different experiences — everyone now is an actor. Everything's a conspiracy," Kanye said about being “ramped up.” “You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things.”
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“You have this moment [where] you feel everyone wants to kill you. You pretty much don’t trust anyone,” he told Dave, 72.
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The experience of being hospitalized also made the “Runaway” rapper realize how inhumanely people are treated in hospitals during psychiatric crises. “They have this moment where they put you — they handcuff you, they drug you, they put you on the bed, and they separate you from everyone you know,” he said. “That’s something that I am so happy that I experienced myself so I can start by changing that moment.”
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“When you are in that state, you have to have someone you trust. It is cruel and primitive to do that,” the dad of four explained.
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Kanye also talked about living in the spotlight with “the stigma of crazy.” "They love to write you off. They love to cut your sentences off halfway," he said. "What you say doesn’t mean as much."
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“It’s a health issue that has a strong stigma on it and people are allowed to say anything about it and discriminate in any way,” he said. It compared mental illness to having a “sprained brain,” like a sprained ankle.
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“And if someone has a sprained ankle, you’re not going to push on him more. With us, once our brain gets to a point of spraining, people do everything to make it worse. They do everything possible. They got us to that point and they do everything to make it worse,” Kanye said.
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Photo credit: INSTARImages
He also explained that he feels being “crazy” helps his creative process.
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The new season of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman debuts on Netflix on May 31.
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Photo credit: MEGA
What do you think of Kanye’s remarks? Sound off in the comments!
“When you’re in this state, you're hyper-paranoid about everything. Everyone — this is my experience, other people have different experiences — everyone now is an actor. Everything's a conspiracy," Kanye said about being “ramped up.” “You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things.”
“You have this moment [where] you feel everyone wants to kill you. You pretty much don’t trust anyone,” he told Dave, 72.
Photo credit: INSTARImages
The experience of being hospitalized also made the “Runaway” rapper realize how inhumanely people are treated in hospitals during psychiatric crises. “They have this moment where they put you — they handcuff you, they drug you, they put you on the bed, and they separate you from everyone you know,” he said. “That’s something that I am so happy that I experienced myself so I can start by changing that moment.”
Photo credit: INSTARImages
“When you are in that state, you have to have someone you trust. It is cruel and primitive to do that,” the dad of four explained.
Photo credit: INSTARImages
Kanye also talked about living in the spotlight with “the stigma of crazy.” "They love to write you off. They love to cut your sentences off halfway," he said. "What you say doesn’t mean as much."
“It’s a health issue that has a strong stigma on it and people are allowed to say anything about it and discriminate in any way,” he said. It compared mental illness to having a “sprained brain,” like a sprained ankle.
Photo credit: INSTARImages
“And if someone has a sprained ankle, you’re not going to push on him more. With us, once our brain gets to a point of spraining, people do everything to make it worse. They do everything possible. They got us to that point and they do everything to make it worse,” Kanye said.
Photo credit: INSTARImages
He also explained that he feels being “crazy” helps his creative process.
Photo credit: INSTARImages
The new season of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman debuts on Netflix on May 31.
Photo credit: INSTARImages
What do you think of Kanye’s remarks? Sound off in the comments!
