Becky G recalls battle with anxiety and panic attacks: ‘Full-blown tears, can’t breathe’

Becky G has gotten candid about her experience with anxiety and panic attacks, and how they’ve impacted her ability to perform on stage.

Although the “Mamiii” singer just started her first concert tour to promote her recently released album Esquinas, she admitted that the pressures of performing on stage haven’t always been easy. On an episode of the health and wellness podcast, On Purpose With Jay Shetty, she revealed: “There was many moments before going on to a stage, I mean, we’re talking full-blown tears, can’t breathe.”

“If you’ve had a panic attack, you know, the world is ending,” the pop star - whose real name is Rebecca Marie Gomez - added. “There’s also this subconscious part of you that’s like: ‘Girl, breathe. Just breathe. You know what this is.’ But your nervous system can’t tell the difference between the mental bear, and the real bear that’s in the room. And there’s no bears in the room. So, like, chillax.”

When struggling with panic attacks, Gomez said, “I didn’t know that was my body physically telling me: ‘Something’s wrong. You’re not okay but because you’re scared to let other people down, you’re scared of what other people might say, [so] you push through anyways.’”

According to the singer, it was when she began to acknowledge that her panic attacks were a symptom of something much bigger that things began to change for the better. “‘Oh yeah, I just have anxiety and depression, it’s normal. I just have panic attacks all the time.’ Like, no. Your body is telling you something,” she explained.

“The body keeps count, the body keeps score of all of what you go through. If you don’t allow your body to feel it, somatically…[you get the] manifestation of the panic attacks and things like that,” the Power Rangers actor continued. “Anxiety and depression are not the diagnosis, they’re the result of [experiences].”

Gomez shared that her therapist taught her to look at life like a three-legged table, supported by spiritual, mental, and physical awareness. By doing so, she said she’s been able to strive for balance in her life: “It makes me very proud of myself to know that I can look at myself every day in the mirror and say: ‘I know it’s going to be really hard and it’s going to be challenging and there’s going to be things that trigger a response from you, maybe that is second nature. We are going to take time to process. We’re gonna add some filters in your process that are better for you.’”

The “Shower” singer credits working out, daily meditation, and social media detoxes as “super helpful” for her mental health. When Shetty asked her why she decided to open up on the podcast, Gomez said that because she got her start acting in commercials and doing voiceovers as a child to help support her family, she always led with a hustle-first mindset, and hardly prioritised her mental health as a result.

“When you start in a career as young as I did, it’s very much so, like: ’Put your head down, get it done,’” she explained. “And you just keep going, and then you blink and you’re like, 26…there’s a little bit of an awakening.”