We are all super proud of Liam Payne. The One Direction singer just got real about living with anxiety and overcoming his insecurities, and we’re seriously amazed by his strength.
While speaking to Esquire Magazine, the “Bedroom Floor” crooner revealed that he unfortunately suffers from something called agoraphobia, which is defined as “an anxiety disorder in which you fear and avoid places or situations that might make you feel trapped, helpless or embarrassed.”
“I do sometimes suffer with it a bit in the sense that I’ll get days where I just don’t want to leave my house,” he admitted. “Even if it’s just going to the shop. I’d be going in to order a coffee at Starbucks and I would sweat because I wouldn’t know whether I was doing the right thing or not. I would be thinking, ‘F–k, I don’t want to be here.’ I even used to have a really bad problem with going to [gas] stations and paying for [gas]. I can feel it now — it was like this horrible anxiety where I’d be sweating buckets in the car thinking, ‘I don’t want to do this.'”
As fans know, the 25-year-old dropped his first solo song, “Strip That Down,” back in May 2017, and it was a total bop. But Liam revealed that although it did really well, he wasn’t really being true to himself.
“‘Strip That Down’ was amazing and I was really happy with the success of it — but it didn’t necessarily paint the right picture of me and who I actually am,” he continued. “I always found, to start off with, that with a lot of the chains and the clothes and the fashion, I was kind of hiding behind something. We did a billion streams for ‘Strip That Down’ but it still all gets a bit heady and at a certain point you’re like, ‘What the f–k am I doing here?’ It’s a bit like being stuck out in deep water and you’re just going ‘Well, it would be really nice to get back now.’”
But he’s definitely come a long way since then. The singer recently revealed he’s got three new songs on the way, and he’s feeling much more confident.
“It took me a long to get my head around it,” he said. “There was a lot of s–t to go through at that time to get to where I am now. My style and my fashion sense are all quite laid back now because that’s kind of the way I am as well. I don’t feel the need to hide behind the clothes anymore. I feel I can finally be who I am and enjoy myself.”
Don’t worry, Liam. We love you just the way you are.
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