Justin Bieber has been in the public eye for a decade now, and it’s been nothing if not a roller coaster. He’s one of the world’s biggest stars, but he’s also made some questionable decisions and pissed a lot of people off. While he once came across as an arrogant asshole with little regard for rules, he’s spent the last couple of years trying to get his sh*t together. He’s been open about his struggles, and his Instagram post from Monday night gives new perspective to everything he’s gone through.
Justin Bieber is no stranger to lengthy text posts on social media. Two years ago, he canceled the end of his Purpose World Tour with a message about his battle with depression and exhaustion, and earlier this year he responded to questions about his next album by saying that he was “focused on repairing some deep rooted issues.” Justin stays private most of the time, but he’s repeatedly turned to Instagram to get things off his chest (like all of us). His latest post is probably his biggest personal update yet.
So first of all, I feel like this is one of the few times when splitting up a Notes app post into multiple slides would have been warranted. Thank god Instagram lets you zoom in, or else this would actually be impossible to read. It’s a lot of text to get through, but Justin Bieber’s message here is actually…kind of great? I won’t go line by line because I have other responsibilities that I need to get to, but let’s go through some of the most important parts.
He begins the message by writing about the endless cycle of depression—something that lots of people can understand. He speaks about “feeling disappointment after disappointment” and being unable to change his mindset, despite having money and lots of accomplishments under his belt. Justin ties this back to the “insane pressure and responsibility” that comes with being a child star.
Throughout the statement, Justin seems to have more self-awareness than he’s shown in the past. He acknowledges that constantly hearing how great he was as a teenager messed up his mindset about life. He says, “Everyone did everything for me so I never even learned the fundamentals of responsibility.” Considering that I’m not rich or famous, and I still call my mom every time I need to do any real adult task, I can totally sympathize with Justin.
In addition to his own issues, he speaks about the mental process of performing. Being on stage is apparently one of the biggest dopamine rushes you can get, which often leads to performers being depressed when they’re not in front of a crowd. Obviously, this is tough for anyone to navigate, but especially for someone so young, it’s hard to imagine not being messed up after years of touring.
For the first time, he really opens up about the period of time when he started rebelling against his perfect child star image. He owns up to his use of “pretty heavy drugs,” and his behavior that was “resentful and disrespectful to women.” No one is perfect, and this admission is better late than never. Justin has spoken in the past about how much marriage has changed his life, and he reiterates that message here. He calls marriage “the best season of my life,” and calls it “an amazing crazy new responsibility.” As opposed to before, when he didn’t do anything for himself, it sounds like now he’s dedicated to putting in the work to be who he wants to be.
The fact that Justin Bieber is finally in a place where he can open up about the rocky journey of his life seems like a promising sign for the future. Whether that means he’ll make new music or try to leave public life behind, he’s obviously done a lot of work to get to this point. Selfishly, I hope he announces a new album any minute now, but I understand if that’s not what’s best for him right now. Overall, it seems like he’s going to be okay, and that’s what matters.
Images: justinbieber / Instagram
