- LeAnn Rimes said that achieving fame at an early age was a factor in her anxiety and depression.
- At 30, she checked into a treatment center to take care of her mental health.
- This article is part of "Me, First," a series about successful women who prioritize their passions and well-being.
LeAnn Rimes is only 39, but she's lived over two decades in the public eye. The singer rose to fame at 13, when her solemn hit single "Blue" introduced the world to a voice that was mature beyond her years.
Rimes' album of the same name earned her two Grammys in 1997, making her the youngest performer ever to be named best new artist. Her follow-up single "How Do I Live" was a smash hit, selling more than 3 million copies in months and spending 69 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
But achieving all this success before she turned 18 had a downside, Rimes told Insider. She said that she felt like she had to be "superhuman" most of the time and that the stress had physical consequences including anxiety and depression.
Rimes recalled "showing up onstage with a 104-degree fever" as a teen and "vomiting backstage before I went on."
"I fainted backstage at 14," she said. "I've had to walk off a couple of times on stage and just be like, 'I can't finish the show.'"
It was time for me to break away from my deep codependency and to figure out what was chemically going on to be able to take care of myself.
Rimes said her family has a history of anxiety and depression; her mom had depression when the singer was growing up. But she believes fame played a role, too.
"Being in the public eye from the time I was very young and having to override my humanness I think was a huge part of my experience with anxiety and depression and what was triggering it," she said.
By the time she was 30, Rimes knew she needed to seek professional help. "I was in a very, very dark place. I had never been alone," she said. "There was always someone around, whether it be a parent or a manager, an agent or a publicist, or a husband, or whatever it was."
The day after her 30th birthday, on August 28, 2012, Rimes checked into a treatment center to address her anxiety and depression.
"It was just time," she said. "It was time for me to break away from my deep codependency and to figure out what was chemically going on to be able to take care of myself."
After years of feeling like she had to 'feed the beast' that is the music business, Rimes put her mental health first
Rimes told Katie Couric in 2012 that the 30-day stay in the treatment center was life-changing.
"I loved being in there," Rimes told Couric. "And it felt great to have other people going through the same things have that empathy and understanding."
Rimes told Couric she especially valued her peers' treating her like a person, not just a celebrity. She said she made lifelong friendships and was delighted "to be there for someone else and have these people actually respect and love me for the help that I gave them emotionally, not because of LeAnn Rimes."
After releasing an album a year for most of her teens and early 20s, Rimes has tried to slow down, she told Insider, asking herself if she really needs to be a "constant source of production." Her album "god's work," out September 16, took her three years to complete. She said it was "a huge change" from when she was younger and "feeling like I had to constantly feed the beast" that is the music business.
The LP will include her latest single, "the wild." In a press release, Rimes described the songs as "a battle cry" against the patriarchal world that often shames and silences women for speaking their minds.
Rimes has changed the way she navigates the business side of her career, too. "I'm much more aware of my own needs and desires and limitations, and I structure my life around that, instead of allowing it to structure me," she told Insider.
Vulnerability continues to be a major aspect of Rimes' public persona. In 2020, she did a nude photo shoot for Glamour amid a psoriasis flare-up.
Rimes, who has had the condition since she was 2, told Insider that her experience of treatment had been "traumatic" at times. With the photo shoot, she said, "I feel like I liberated the kid in me that always felt like she had to hide in some way."
"Whether or not you have psoriasis, we're all hiding something, right?" she continued. "So I hope I inspired people to allow the parts of themselves that they feel like they have to hide to be seen."
Rimes practices self-care and encourages others to do the same
Rimes has been honest about her mental health, opening up to People in 2020 about her struggles with panic attacks, persistent negative thoughts, and lack of sleep. She told Insider she relies on self-care practices like red-light therapy, meditation, and getting out into nature whenever she can to center herself.
Sometimes taking care of herself means spending a day on the couch. "Being on the road, I think what I'm learning is that as much energy as I give out, I have to fill myself back up to be able to continue to give it back out, so sometimes Netflix and 'Grace and Frankie' are my jam," she said.
Rimes also promotes self-care through her podcast, "Wholly Human." The show often features authors and experts, like the motivational speaker Gabby Bernstein and the counselor and coach Nancy Jane Smith, discussing topics like happiness and how to navigate anxiety.
My teenage self, she was gutsy. She knew what she wanted.
"I come in as a student, just as I hope the rest of my listeners do," Rimes said. "Each and every episode I feel like I'm going through therapy, so it's somewhat selfish in that way. It's like, 'Oh, I want these people to talk to because I want to learn.'"
Rimes said her mental-health journey has taught her how to appreciate the lessons her 14-year-old self has for her today.
"My teenage self, she was gutsy. She knew what she wanted," she said. "I knew what songs I wanted to record; I knew how I wanted to record them. And then along the way, life and people in the industry and just in the world got in my ear, and I stopped trusting that piece of me.
"And so these last 10 years for me have been really about coming home to that. If I need to have a lot of courage, I summon her, because she was very courageous, for sure."