NEED TO KNOW
Lainey Wilson reveals she once worked with three therapists to manage her mental health
The country star struggled with anxiety and burnout during a grueling radio tour early in her career
Wilson shares her journey in a new Netflix documentary streaming April 22 and hopes to inspire others to speak up
Lainey Wilson is getting candid about her mental health journey.
In this week’s PEOPLE cover story, the country star, 33, reveals she once had three therapists, including one for business, who, she says, “helps me get a point across with a little bow wrapped on top, because if I really let my Louisiana crazy side come out, I’d be saying things a little sideways.”
On tour, “you have 100 something people with you, and you’re dealing with a lot of different personalities,” she says. “I want it to be an environment that people want to come and work. I want people to want to stick around for 30, 40 years, however long we’re out there getting it. So, she’s just teaching me that side of things and how to set boundaries.”
Lainey Wilson for PEOPLE
Credit: Alex G. Harper
After moving to Nashville in a camper trailer at 19 and spending nearly a decade grinding in the music business, Wilson landed her major-label deal in 2018.
As her career took off, Wilson struggled with anxiety and depression, which she opens up about in her forthcoming Netflix documentary, Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool (streaming April 22). A relentless radio tour schedule in 2019 pushed her to her breaking point: a days-long panic attack.
“I was going around meeting every radio station in America,” she says. “You go into a conference room and you play your song and sometimes they’re into it, sometimes they’re on their phone, sometimes you’re singing to the carpet.”
“After four months solid visiting all these different radio stations, I was just exhausted and I was burned-out from having to constantly be on,” she continues. “I wanted to curl up in a little ball and shut the world out completely.”
Lainey Wilson for PEOPLE
Credit: Alex G. Harper
Advice from Reba McEntire helped: “’When I feel like I can’t do it anymore, I do it for somebody else,’” Wilson recalls McEntire telling her, adding, “It was like a light bulb went off.”
She carried that message into her Whirlwind world tour (which wrapped on March 6) by bringing a young “cowgirl of the night” onstage during each show and telling them, “You are beautiful, you’re smart, you’re talented, you can do anything.”
That sentiment helps keep Wilson — who also discusses her mental health journey in her new Netflix documentary Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool, streaming April 22 — grounded too.
“I’m not just a singer, songwriter, musician — that’s what I do,” she says. “Trophies and awards are things that come along with success, but it cannot define me as a person, because that’s when I lose sight of who I am. I got to keep my head screwed on straight.”
Lainey Wilson for PEOPLE
Credit: Alex G. Harper
By sharing her story, Wilson wants “to encourage people to speak up.”
“Speak up when you’re not feeling great, because there most likely will be people around you who can help you through it or get you the help you need,” she says. “If you’re not telling the people around you how you’re feeling then nobody’s going to know.”
For more from Lainey Wilson, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE on stands Friday.
Read the original article on People