Singer James Blake reveals his struggle with 'existential depression'

Singer James Blake has revealed that he suffered with "existential depression on a daily basis," at the beginning of his career. 

Blake discussed battling with poor mental health at the Performing Arts Medicine Association's annual symposium, where he was a guest speaker on a panel called, "You Got This: Managing the Suicide Crisis in the Arts Population." 

The Retrograde crooner, who was in his early 20s when he released his first self-titled album, believes that his success at a relatively young age played a significant part in his illness. He said: “I was taken away from normal life essentially at an age where I was half-formed.”

The singer, who beat the likes of David Bowie and Arctic Monkeys to win the Mercury Prize in 2013, specifically suggested the unstable and alienating elements of life on the road contributed to his battles with depression. He told the panel: "Your connection to other people becomes surface level.

"So if you were only in town for one day and someone asked you how you are, you go into the good stuff…which generally doesn’t involve how anxious you feel [or] how depressed you feel.”

He also discussed the damaging effects of a poorer diet while on the road: "“I would say that chemical imbalance due to diet and the deterioration of my health was a huge, huge factor in my depression and eventual suicidal thoughts."

Blake revealed that he finally sought EMDR therapy (which uses eye movement to overcome trauma, anxiety and depression) to treat his depression, but said the most important factor in improving his mental health was learning to "[say] no to constant touring."

He felt it was important to reveal his own battles with mental health during his career because he feels that we are at a "critical point," as he explained: “We are the generation that’s watched several other generations of musicians turn to drugs and turn to excess and coping mechanisms that have destroyed them."

The singer also spoke about the worrying prevalance of suicide among artists, just earlier this year Swedish DJ Avicii was found dead in Oman and last year saw Linkin park's Chester Bennington take his own life.  Blake said: "There are so many high-profile people recently who’ve taken their own lives.

"So we, I think, have a responsibility to talk about it and to remove the stigma....There is this myth that you have to be anxious to be creative, that you have to be depressed to be a genius.

"I can truly say that anxiety has never helped me create. And I’ve watched it destroy my friends’ creative process too.”

Earlier this year Blake also spoke out against the "unhealthy and problematic" phrase 'sad boy' which has been used to describe his music. He attributed the use of such terms to "the ever disastrous historical stigmatisation of men expressing themselves emotionally," and called for a more open and honest discussion about mental health.