Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Justin Bieber
Topics: Health, Justin Bieber, Mental Health, Celebrity
Jess Hardiman
Topics: Health, Justin Bieber, Mental Health, Celebrity
Justin Bieber has certainly been through it when it comes to health in recent years, having been vocal about his struggles with everything from Lyme disease to depression and anxiety.
The star was even forced to cancel a spate of tour dates in 2022 after being diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome type 2, revealing that half of his face had become temporarily paralysed.
But no doubt one of the hardest parts of any health issue is getting the answers in the first place, which is something Bieber had to really work for.
Back in 2020, the singer released a short documentary on his YouTube channel, speaking out in-depth for the first time publicly about his health.
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As well as discussing his history with drugs – and the ‘dark moments’ that made him realise he needed to quit – Bieber and wife Hailey both open up about how he dealt with his physical and mental health after being diagnosed with Lyme disease.
The year before, he’d undergone a series of medical tests in an attempt to finally fully restore his health.
The star could be seen telling the doctor that he’d been struggling with energy ‘for quite some time’, and hadn’t been able to work out why.
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“I realised after a series of tests that I have what’s called Lyme disease, which is a super silent disease that’s not really very well known. It’s very hard for doctors to test for it.”
His doctors eventually diagnosed him with both Lyme disease and Epstein-Barr, the latter of which is also known as mono.
But Dr Daniel Amen, Bieber’s ‘brain health doctor’, explained how Bieber had also visited a psychiatrist in LA and been told he had bipolar disorder.
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The psychiatrist ‘gave him lithium without ever looking at his brain’, he said.
“When I looked at his brain, he wasn’t bipolar,” Amen added.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), depression, anxiety or other mental symptoms may be 'among the first signs of infection' of Lyme disease.
Lorraine Johnson, JD, MBA, who experienced precisely that before she eventually had her diagnosis, told the APA: “If you are misdiagnosed with a psychiatric illness, you will be treated with psychotropic medications, and those are not without side effects.
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“And they may lead you on a road to nowhere. That’s basically what happened to me for about five years.”
Bieber said it felt good to finally know why he felt ‘crappy all the time’, with his wife also saying: “He just felt so sick, and there was no explanation for what was going on.
"So now that we have all the answers, and we know what it is, and we know how to alleviate it and fix it, I think he’s honestly not only healthier than he’s ever been, but on the road to maintaining a healthier life than he’s ever had, which is awesome.”