Audacy’s 11th annual We Can Survive concert was a true celebration, bringing fans and artists together while shining a light on the lasting impact that open and honest conversations around mental health can have.
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Looking back on some of our favorite backstage moments centered around Audacy’s mission to support mental health via I’m Listening and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), listen below as this year's We Can Survive performers offer advice, tips, and personal anecdotes about their own mental health journeys, sponsored by BetterHelp.
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
“As far as advice, you can't really give advice,” New Kids On The Block's Joey McIntyre says. “I mean, you can't even give advice to your own kids. I had a great dad, right? It goes in one ear and goes out the other. You gotta learn on your own. Hopefully, you have enough people around you that can cushion some of the blows that you go through. But it's an interesting world to grow up in.” The biggest misconception specifically when it comes to mental health, Donny Wahlberg adds, “is that asking questions or asking for help is a weakness.” On the contrary, “It's a strength,” he believes. “It takes vulnerability which takes strength. Imagine telling even your closest friend your deepest darkest secret, it's hard, and a lot of us will pass up that opportunity time and time again.”
“We have to learn in time, hopefully, that asking for help, asking questions, is a strength. It takes vulnerability, and in that regard, we can just try to encourage everyone,” he says. “One of the reasons we're here is to encourage everyone to ‘don't be afraid,’ you know. Even us… we grew up in the music business, we became really successful as teenagers, and suddenly everyone in our life thought we had all the answers -- and we were children. It made it hard for us to say, ‘Damn, I'm struggling right now.’ Everyone's like, ‘Hey man, what do I do?’” Donny continues, “It's a journey for everyone, but asking for help, however vulnerable anyone feels doing it, hopefully you can find the strength to do it because it's a beautiful thing and there are people out there willing to help -- but they can't read our minds.”
TATE MCRAE
Tate McRae opened up about what she does to maintain her mental health in such a demanding and unpredictable industry. “I mean, obviously I have an outlet which is writing. If I didn't have writing, I would not be in the position I am today. Music is definitely the thing that I reach to whenever I'm hitting like my lowest points,” McRae revealed. “But then I also just think having a good support system, your family, your friends, making sure you trust them and they fill you up is really important.” Acknowledging that there still might be some lingering stigma that “talking about your emotions is like a sensitive or annoying thing to do,” Tate stressed the importance of “being open with yourself and honest, and honest with your friends too,”
“Have conversations, none of it's embarrassing,” she said, insisting that the idea of not wanting to share in order to feel cool in front of your friends, “that's so overrated.”
KHALID
“I really value friendship… it’s just really important to me,” Khalid told us. When it comes to maintaining his mental health, it’s those friendships, and kindness towards himself that Khalid finds as helpful tools. “I really gotta give my thanks to my core friend group… I’ve kept the same friends since I've started my career and they've been able to see me in different stages of my life. So really valuing the importance of the relationships that I have around me. And also like I said, giving myself grace and taking myself less seriously and always having fun with life. This is the only life we got.”
ISABEL LAROSA
“I'm happy that it's becoming more of a conversation and people feel like they can talk about [mental health] more,” Isabel LaRosa says, “but I still do think a lot of people are afraid to ask for help. A lot of the time if I'm struggling, I don't want to feel like I have to ask for help, or I get embarrassed. I just feel like it's always better to say something or rant about it on a TikTok or whatever it is… You should always talk about it in whatever way you want to. I don't think you should ever keep it to yourself if you feel like it's something you need to talk about.”
“My boyfriend and my loved ones… I mean, they are the best,” she adds, “and sometimes I get so in my head about everything that it's hard to see reality and it's helpful to have somebody be like, ‘Ok, wake up, nothing’s going downhill, you're not gonna fail.’ It's just helpful to have a reality check sometimes.”
HAVEN MADISON
"I definitely think it's a different time and age when we're told to post one video a day, and it puts a lot of pressure on me sometimes to feel like I need to look pretty and do something right? And have the trending video. I also feel like it tends to get me in my head about numbers quite often,” singer Haven Madison told us about her struggle navigating the music industry. “But I just try to find peace in knowing that I know who I am, and my friends know who I am, and the people who really, really matter know who I am, and I try to be real and raw with everything.”
“I think that it's become a place where we love romanticizing mental health in a way. It's like, ‘I have anxiety and I have depression and everybody's like, ‘Yeah, we're with you,’ and then when you say ‘I go to therapy, or I'm medicated,’ everybody's like, ‘Hold on.’ I think we could get better about being honest about solutions. I hate when I talk to people about therapy or medicine and they're like, ‘I don't want to rely on that to make me happy.’ It's like this: Everybody else is here, and if you're here because of a mental illness, it's OK if you have to go to therapy or take medicine to be level with everybody else.”
Related
Audacy's I’m Listening initiative aims to encourage those who are dealing with mental health issues to understand they are not alone. If you or anyone you know is struggling with depression or anxiety, know that someone is always there. Additionally, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 988. Find a full list of additional resources here.