Oh another celeb going to therapy…big deal, right? Not so fast. The realizations here in this story w Joe Jonas are huge.
Joe’s known to many as a member of the rock band – The Jonas Brothers, alongside his brothers Kevin & Nick.
But, he started coming out w his own music, living in NYC & released an album, called: Fastlife. Very early on he could tell it wasn’t “doing well.” He said he started seeing reactions & it hit him like a ton of bricks. According to Joe, “I started feeling like physically ill & I really told myself & I believed that I was sick.”
Joe shared that bc of the prior success, he assumed all of his pursuits would be successful. How common is that? Ok maybe not on a global stage as performers, but…we grow up in smaller towns, & we usually excel at something – a sport, science, an instrument, debate. And as we get older & go to college & “the real world” – there are more ppl to compete against.
More ppl who were the “stars” in their towns. That’s a blow to our identity – but it also makes us start to question ourselves, & our purpose, like it did to Joe.
He continued: “I started going to the doc like every other wk & then it became like every wk & it was almost like a joke w my friends. We’re like, ‘Oh Sunday funday, Joe’s going to the hospital again to get a check-up.’ And I would do like full body check-ups. I would do ultrasounds on my stomach.
Think abt this: PHYSICAL symptoms – that he thought were related to his PHYSICAL health…that were actually being caused by his visceral reaction to the feedback he was getting on his album. Trauma – even as he describes it.
“I started talking to a therapist & really dove into all of that pain & trauma that I’ve created for myself & it was weird that it stemmed from something as simple as, ‘Oh, the album didn’t do as well as I thought.’ Which you think like it’s not the biggest deal in the world, but I think in my brain I was pushing myself so hard & I had these expectations really set high.”
If that can happen to a world class singer – high expectation – leading to not living up to them, leading to getting sick…can’t that happen to anyone?