As people turned the last page of 2023 over, the popular singer Lewis Capaldi shared an update on his physical and mental health amidst his current hiatus from touring. According to PEOPLE, he took to X (former Twitter) to share the current happenings of his life.
The Scottish singer-songwriter wrote on X:
“As most of you will know, I’m currently taking some time off to focus on my health and wellbeing and it’s been going great!”
The update is the first public one made by the 27-year-old singer after he took a break at the end of June.
He continued to write:
“I’ve been working with some incredible professionals to help me learn about and cope better with Tourette’s and anxiety issues. I’m really happy to say I’ve noticed a marked improvement in both since.”
He further unveiled that he will be releasing an extended version of his second album, Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent, which also became a Netflix documentary film, titled How I’m Feeling Now. The streaming giant documentary underscored the singer’s difficulty in dealing with Tourette syndrome. However, he shared that he is dealing with a lot of mixed feelings over releasing another record at the time, which involved “back-and-forth about whether it was the right thing to do.”
He wrote:
“This album was a scary one for me — if you saw the film I made on Netflix you probably know this already. But I was absolutely terrified of disappointing you all, afraid of not living up to expectations and in all honestly scared that the whole thing would be a complete flop.”
a wee update, happy new year x pic.twitter.com/w0MzXgtTtX
— Lewis Capaldi (@LewisCapaldi) December 31, 2023
Per PEOPLE, the extended album release will be available at midnight on New Year’s Day. Be that as it may, Capaldi revealed that the hiatus will continue into 2024.
He shared:
“For now I’m going to continue taking some time to carry on looking after myself, maybe writing some new music and taking a moment to reflect on some of the most incredible years of my life. I want to make absolutely sure I’m 100% before getting back out there properly for more shows and doing what I love more than anything!”
Following his performance at the 2023 Glastonbury Festival on June 27, Capaldi shared with his fans that he will be “taking a break from touring for the foreseeable future.”
“I used to be able to enjoy every second of shows like this and I’d hoped 3 weeks away would sort me out. But the truth is I’m still learning to adjust to the impact of my Tourette’s and on Saturday it became obvious that I need to spend much more time getting my mental and physical health in order, so I can keep doing everything I love for a long time to come.”
This comes a month after he stated that if his health was jeopardized, he would have to take the difficult decision to step away from the spotlight. And the difficult decision he did take.
In conversation with Apple Music’s Rebecca Judd, the “Before You Go” singer unveiled the mental health problems he had to face owing to his second record. He said, “My mental health issues are a direct symptom of my job. I was in a bad way where I was just having panic attacks every single day on stage, and I was just shy.”
Capaldi continued to say, “I still haven’t quite got there, but it’s interesting that this thing that you love to do, and you’ve always wanted to do becomes something that causes you such distress, but such is the modern world.”
“Right now I’m at a point where I can balance my mental health and how I feel in general…the trade-off is worth it,” he further added. “I’ll take a few panic attacks and my Tourette’s and stuff for what’s happening, but if it gets to the point where things get worse mentally and I stop kind of looking after myself in that regard, I think that would be a point where I’d be like, ‘I’m just not going to do this anymore.’ ”
In 2022, Capaldi revealed that he suffered from Tourette syndrome after he observed that his shoulder would frequently twitch. In a September Instagram Live session, he admitted that “it happens all the time.”
He revealed, “The worst thing about it is when I’m excited I get it, when I’m stressed I get it, when I’m happy I get it. It happens all the time. Some days it’s more painful than others and some days it’s less painful. It looks a lot worse than it is. Sometimes it’s quite uncomfortable … but it comes and goes.”