Depression and anxiety do not discriminate against anyone, including celebrities like Ashley Tisdale.
Tisdale is perhaps best known for her role as Sharpay Evans in the hit Disney film, High School Musical. Since then, Tisdale has remained in the spotlight, acting and well as recording music. But the road hasn’t always been easy for her after fame and fortune, and the actress is finally opening up to People about her struggles with both anxiety and depression.
“This is the first time I’m being super vulnerable. This is me sharing my journey through anxiety and depression,” Tisdale says about her latest album, Symptoms.
The 33-year-old poured her heart and soul into the album, and co-wrote each and every track. She hopes that her new music can help to break the stigma around mental illness, something that she didn’t think was a problem for her until she began touring.
“I didn’t know the anxiety symptoms I had in the past while touring. Before, I would freak out before going on stage. That was a panic attack. I had no idea what that was until I started reading about it.”
In the past, Ashley confesses that her music could have been written for another artist because she didn’t really relate to the songs. In fact, most of the songs were written for her before she even stepped foot in the recording studio. Now, she’s proud knowing that her songs from this album will relate to her and tell her story.
“The reason I wanted to do this album was because I wanted to make someone at home not feel so alone in what they go through,” she shares. “They could look at me and go, ‘We’re all human. We all go through things.'”
Specifically, Tisdale’s new single, “Voices in My Head,” details the struggles that she deals with from time to time when she is out in public. The songstress says that there are so many times that she goes to an event or social party and just feels like she isn’t worthy or good enough to be there and the voices in her head are telling her that. Ashley says that she felt that it was important to write it in a song because like her, there are so many others who deal with similar issues.
Though she still faces a battle with depression and anxiety, Ashley’s music has helped her learn to deal while also finding find self-acceptance. In her own words, the album could not have come at a better time.
“It came at the perfect time when I was going through the thick of it. John’s studio really became my safe place and where I really found myself again. It was so therapeutic, I feel like it saved me from just dwelling in what I was feeling.”
This is the first time that Ashley has put out new music in nine years.