Rapper Jeezy Details His Surprising Mental Health Struggles

Rapper Jeezy is opening up about his mental health struggles.

During an interview on the Tamron Hall Show on Monday, the rapper—who recently released his memoir Adversity for Sale—revealed that he battled depression for eight years before he realized what it was and how it was affecting his well-being.

“I didn’t understand trauma and all these different things so when I started to get the words for it, I started to understand and grab tools, I started to become better,” said. “I started on my journey and that’s why I’m expressing it and putting it in the book because I didn’t know I was depressed for like eight years of my life straight.”

He went on to detail how he felt his thoughts were just a symptom of growing in poverty and in a rough neighborhood where talks of mental health, trauma and the resources to deal with them both. But now that he’s in a better place, and gotten a clear picture on what it was he was going through, he’s learned there’s power in vulnerability and credits his children for helping him not be as cold.

“You wake up and you just want to go back to sleep forever, you know? And I was leaning into my vices. And that’s what street life does to you. You know what I’m saying?” he explained. “When you lose 200, 300, 400 people like gone forever, you just, you get numb. And I wasn’t able to get in touch with my emotions and I was wondering why. Thank God for my kids but there was a time I was just cold. That’s when I was Young Jeezy.”

Now, however, it appears he’s in a better place and at the very least ready to explore and share what moving forward looks like for his betterment.