Meghan Trainor is promoting her new single, No Excuses. The video was released earlier this month and has already racked up 24 million views. She was also a judge on that Fox singing competition show, The Four, which wrapped in February after hardly any promotion. Meghan had vocal cord surgery for the first time in 2016 following a vocal cord hemorrhage. This is a real risk for singers as vocal chords are muscles which can be damaged with overuse. She had to have a second surgery early last year, her second in six months, and has spoken about how difficult that was along with how inspirational. Following her surgery she hit rock bottom. She was seeing scary things, and once she got out of that dark place she stopped drinking and cleaned up her diet. I really like Meghan. Her music is so catchy, you never hear anything bad about her, and she’s also a talented songwriter and producer. She seems so bubbly and upbeat that I wouldn’t imagine that she went through all this.
On how difficult it was after her second surgery
“After surgery I hit rock bottom. I felt like I was possessed and demons were attacking me. I literally felt I had gone crazy. I thought I was schizophrenic.”“Mentally, I went to a really dark, dark place. I couldn’t really speak for four months due to surgery.
“It was really unhealthy for me. All your thoughts become internalised. You feel alone in your head.
“It is a terrible place to be. I couldn’t sleep because I was terrified I wouldn’t wake up in the morning.
“I never thought it would end. I thought my career and my life was over.”
She was able to recover
“I struggled with the fact it was all in my brain, because I couldn’t stop torturing myself.“It was a hard process. I managed to crawl out of a dark hole. And now I have, I have never been better.
“I want to spread that message so other people know they can get through it too.”I struggled with the fact it was all in my brain, because I couldn’t stop torturing myself.
“It was a hard process. I managed to crawl out of a dark hole. And now I have, I have never been better.“I want to spread that message so other people know they can get through it too.” – From The Daily Star
She thought her dreams were shattered
“It was scary. It’s another time of like, ‘I’m going to take away all your hopes and dreams for a second, put it on pause and see if they come back/ My first thought was: I hope this works. We just kept saying ‘We’re never doing this again, we’re never doing this again.’ So we’re very careful.”On the changes she’s made since
“It really shocks you and puts you in place. I stopped drinking — I know it hurts your cords. I don’t ever smoke anything, I drink a lot of water and I started eating healthier and working out more. Now mentally and physically, it’s proven to work, so I’m gonna keep doing that.” – From People
[From The Daily Star and People]
A somewhat similar thing happened to me in 2014 after three surgeries in just a few months. It wasn’t half as bad as she describes, she couldn’t even talk for four months! That must have been awful. I had a reaction to the pain medication after the third surgery. After that, I was finally able to lose weight and get healthy after months of being sick. I also quit drinking, which made my life so much better. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have your entire career in jeopardy from a health issue though. Do you think she also had a reaction to pain medication or other meds she was being given post-surgery? That might explain why she was hallucinating.
Meghan says she now rests and takes time off when she’s promoting her work. I’m so glad to hear that she’s ok. There’s no word on when her new album is coming out, but it will surely be a hit. She said that her fiance and her “entire family sings on every song” and that it’s about “me being in love and happy, and reminding myself to choose happiness and love myself.”
photos credit: Backgrid, WENN and Meghan Trainor/Instagram
I’m glad she’s doing better.
I hate when people say things like “I felt schizophrenic” “but I crawled out of a dark hole” and you can, too! I realize it’s not intended to minimize mental illness, but it does. You’re not schizophrenic, and people who are don’t just recover by sheer force of will.
Similarly, you’re not “OCD” just because you’re particular about a certain thing. That’s a personal pet peeve. As someone who actually does have OCD, it’s not a buzzword and it’s not slang. It’s a debilitating mental disorder. Oy. Let me hop off this soapbox. Sorry.
That’s a really good point Bendy I didn’t think of that.
Good point, Bendy! I also remember reading about her here on CB, qouted saying that she’s not a feminist because she loves men (or some other idiotic thing about why she’s not a feminist), there was a long conversation in the comments about her song body shaming women with different body types (“All about that bass”), and how she said she “admired Ariana Grande’s thigh gap”. WTF? And now these ignorant comments on mental illness? Hard pass from me. To each their own but I am not a fan.
I’m right behind you in the hard passing lane.
If she really was given orders to vocal rest for months (and I’m not saying she didn’t) she should have been given an AAC device by her speech language pathologist to facilitate expressive language. Sure, it’s not the same as “normal” language but she shouldn’t (and I doubt she was) sitting in a Cone of Silence for however many months. I am a speech pathologist in hospital and I work with people like her all day long.
Speech therapist here, yay!
I knew you were an SLP as soon as I saw “AAC.” Fellow SLP here! I agree, she should have been assessed for some sort of alternative communication device during her prescribed months of vocal rest. “It was really unhealthy for me. All your thoughts become internalised. You feel alone in your head.” this quote makes it sound like nothing was provided to her, but at the very least she could use her phone to send messages, or write the old fashioned way with a pen and pencil. Of course, due to the hallucinations and constant fear, maybe part of her didn’t actually want to attempt at communication at that time? Anyway, glad she’s feeling better and taking better care of her voice. Vocal hygiene ftw.
I had shoulder surgery once that caused some nerve damage and the nerve pain was constant for the few months while a treatment plan was figured out. I rarely slept and after days of not sleeping and being in constant pain your mind can take you to really dark places, just as she said. If she wasn’t sleeping and felt isolated mentally I could see how that would be very tough. I don’t care for her one way or another, but it’s good she’s feeling better.
I understand she could not speak….but surely she could write? Pen and pencil? Keyboard? I’m not sure why she was trapped inside her head, completely unable to communicate. Also, it’s my understanding from my dad’s stroke there are machine type things that help with the spoken word. This all sounds very dramatic. I wonder if she’s ever know someone with true schizophrenia, because no way can that person crawl out from her dark place by will alone. I appreciate her story, but not the dramatic flourishes.
I was unable to speak for several months due to vocal chord paralysis. It’s incredibly isolating. Pen and paper help, but a normal conversation moves on before a note can be jotted down and read aloud or passed around. Eventually that awkardness becomes so tedious that you and those around start to interact in a different way. When trying to order at a restaurant or purchase anything at a shop I would get the most kind but (to me at that point) pitying looks from those around me. At the time, those looks were like knives to my self-esteem. Months of work with a speech pathologist helped me to regain speech, but dang if that wasn’t a dark time.
I feel for anyone experiencing that isolation.
Over 1% of Americans suffer from schizophrenia. Some people who have bipolar disorder also experience hallucinations. Just echoing what has been said here about how frustrating her comments could be for those who can’t just shake off a serious mental illness as a one-time dramatic story. Also — I’m glad she’s done what she needs to to turn her health around, but what she is describing could be something that returns, and is part of a larger health issue. Chronic mental illness can be episodic and doesn’t discriminate.
A lot of what Megan thinks are cute or dramatic stories and lyrics often turn out to be problematic AF, but I know she is well-intentioned….
I suffer from muscle tension and spasmodic dysphonia and it has changed me on every level. My job was in Customer Care and to an extent still is but I definitely now have vocal limitations. For example I cannot speak via telephone because my voice goes out after saying Hi my name is.. Then in Jan my husband of 20plus years left me for his best friend’s wife and soon after my voice kinda returned but then just as quick left. My dr thinks it was adrenaline sort of fight or flight kicking in (like when a mother can lift a car to save a child pinned under it)
I have gone to speech therapy and it unfortunately did not help a lot but what I find helpful is using a text to speech app. Yes i sound like a robot but at least I can communicate.