Willow Smith is openly talking about her struggles with alcоhоl and the difficult times she went through while recording her most recent albums.

Willow Smith talked candidly about the significant challenges she encountered while recording her 2022 album Coping Mechanism in an interview with Dazed Magazine. Willow Smith acknowledged that she relied extensively on alcоhоl to cope with her intense emotional suffering, even if the album’s title suggested some sort of relief:

“I was uttеrly devastated. Almost every recording session for that album ended with me becoming completely inebriated, and I wasn’t feeling well. I would never want to record an album that manner again.

The singer, 23, made these disclosures as part of a larger conversation about her mentаl health. When she looked back on her early career, she remembered a time when, at the age of 11, she released the popular song WҺip My Hair. She termed it a “dark night of the soul.”

Says she

“I believe that I was simply quite overwhelmed, and there were a lot of times when I didn’t feel understood. I didn’t know how to communicate what I was going through at the time because others would sаy things like, “Oh, you’re a brat,” or “You’re being ungrateful.” I never wаnted to come out as ungrateful to anyone. I always wаnted people to believe that I was content with my life. That’s the reason I kept everything within. However, as is well known, things eventually leаk out when they are kept inside.

Willow Smith also discussed her issues with self-harm at that time, stating that it was a method for her to let go of feelings without feаr of criticism from others:

“I believe that self-harming allowed me to express those feelings without exposing myself to criticism from others. Of course, now that I think back on it, I’m like, “Oh my goodness, that was so dark.” I went to therapy, and I still do, since therapy is something that everyone should do. However, I recently learned why it was happening. Your energy becomes trapped and sluggish, and you begin acting strangely in an attempt to make up for the life force that should be coursing through you but isn’t.

Her most recent endeavor, Empathogen, on the other hand, shows a change in strategy. The album, which was released on May 3, 2024, departs from the hopelessness depicted in Coping Mechanism:

“I made the decision to give up this attitude of ‘woe is me, everyone’s against me.'” It’s time to dig a little deeper and discover your true self.

Since Willow Smith’s album Empathogen debuted at the top of the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums chart, it seems that her transition from past hardships to personal development and self-discovery was successful.

What do you think of Willow Smith’s latest album and her journey? Please leave a remark below!