Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns has checked himself into a rehab facility after using alcohol as a crutch to deal with his anxiety, depression and PTSD.
The 42-year-old singer and guitarist revealed on Thursday he has been suffering from ‘panic attacks’ and got into a car accident on Wednesday after becoming ‘lost’ on the road.
‘As you know, my mental health is a work in progress. I have good days and bad days but it’s something I always have to manage,’ he said in a statement.
Statement: Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns has checked himself into a rehab facility after using alcohol as a crutch to deal with his anxiety, depression and PTSD
‘Over the last week I began to experience panic attacks. Last night I got lost while driving and I was in an accident. I am OK, everyone is OK.’
‘Alongside my therapy, I’ve been self-medicating with alcohol to deal with my anxiety and depression. I know this is no sustainable or healthy.
‘I have to step back now as I’m self-admitting to a rehabilitation center and I don’t know how long I’ll be there. Appreciate your love and support as always.’
It comes weeks after Daniel slammed his Silverchair ‘colleagues’ for allegedly not supporting him when he was gravely ill in 2002.
Announcement: In a statement, he began: ‘As you know, my mental health is a work in progress. I have good days and bad days but it’s something I always have to manage’
Suffering: The admission comes weeks after Daniel slammed his Silverchair ‘colleagues’ for allegedly not supporting him when he was gravely ill in 2002
The singer and guitarist revealed in a Facebook post he’d been diagnosed with reactive arthritis, an inflammation of the joints that left him in crippling pain, when the band was launching their fourth album Diorama.
Johns, who also suffered from anxiety and anorexia at the time, claimed he did not receive the help he needed, and felt his band was ‘more of a business than family’.
‘I felt personally responsible for people in our crew who couldn’t work because of my illness,’ he wrote.
‘While I was undergoing exhaustive treatment both here and abroad, I learned very quickly who loved me as a human being and who needed me a performer.
‘I really needed a friend back then, instead I had disgruntled colleagues. When my phone did ring it was usually someone asking if I was ready to tour again.’
He also recalled how one member of the Silverchair team even questioned if he was sick at all.
Unhelpful: ‘I needed a friend back then, instead I had disgruntled colleagues,’ said Johns. Pictured: Johns with his Silverchair bandmates Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou in October 2002
‘Someone in the team even questioned whether I was sick at all and that maybe I just didn’t want to promote the album… Who the f**k wanted Diorama to be more successful than I did?’ he said.
Johns added: ‘I’m not resentful. I understand everyone was under pressure and the band was putting food on many tables but this was too much to put on me. I was 22.’
It’s unclear if Johns was referring to his bandmates Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou when he spoke of his ‘colleagues’ and members of Silverchair’s ‘team’.
Diorama became Silverchair’s fastest-selling album, and went on to be certified triple platinum.
Johns previously revealed why he decided to distance himself from the band that catapulted him to fame.
Never going back: It comes after Johns revealed why he’d decided to distance himself from the band that catapulted him to fame, grunge rockers Silverchair (pictured)
In October, he confirmed the group would never reform with him as frontman because he’d struggled for years with the dark side of fame.
Johns – who was just 15 when Silverchair’s first single was released – said on his Spotify podcast Who Is Daniel Johns? he had even thrown out all of his memorabilia, awards and mementos.
‘It’s not that I am not proud of it, but for some reason I don’t want it around,’ he said.
‘I was anorexic so I was trying to lose weight’: Johns recently detailed his crippling battle with anorexia in the late ’90s on the Who is Daniel Johns podcast, telling interviewer Kaitlyn Sawrey that he would go on three-hour walks at night to ‘lose weight’. Pictured in 1999
He bluntly added: ‘I wouldn’t even get Silverchair back together for a million dollars with a gun to my head.’
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It wasn’t the only time Johns spoke out about his struggles with mental health and his meteoritic rise to fame.
He recently spoke about his crippling battle with anorexia in the late ’90s, detailing his harrowing ordeal on his tell-all Spotify podcast.
He told interviewer Kaitlyn Sawrey that he would go on three-hour walks to ‘lose weight‘ at the height of his anorexia.
Iconic: Daniel was just 15 years old when Silverchair shot to fame, and several of the band’s songs were about the serious illnesses he contended with while growing up. Pictured with drummer Ben Gilles (centre) and bassist Chris Joannou (left)
‘I used to wait until everyone went to bed and then I would take her for walks at 2am for like, three hours, because I was anorexic so I was trying to lose weight,’ Johns said.
Johns said he became a recluse in his late teenage years, only leaving his bedroom at night to exercise.
The singer explained that starving himself was the only part of his life he could control as a global teen sensation.
‘That’s eating disorder 101. I couldn’t control anything but I could control what I ate,’ Johns said.
Defying the taboo: Reflecting upon the raw lyrics, Johns explained: ‘People didn’t talk about mental health in the late 90s, that was not a thing.’ Pictured in 1999
John spoke about his anorexia battle in his 1999 single Ana’s Song (Open Fire), which contained lyrics such as: ‘You’re my obsession / I love you to the bones / And Ana wrecks your life like an anorexia life.’
Reflecting upon the raw lyrics, Johns explained: ‘People didn’t talk about mental health in the late 90s, that was not a thing. It made you look like you were weak. Now, you can talk about it, it’s fine. But over time, I used to just have to sit and figure this **t out by myself.’
‘Otherwise I was going to be f***ing Kurt Cobain, I felt that bad. I didn’t want to be that way and I wanted to forge my own future.’
Never: He bluntly added: ‘I wouldn’t even get Silverchair back together for a million dollars with a gun to my head’
Johns recently revealed he had decided to put off the release of his second solo album, FutureNever, sharing the news on Instagram in March.
Johns said he came ‘bearing bad and good news’, and added that he hoped his fans were ‘not too mad at me’.
‘The bad news is the release of FutureNever has been delayed by a few weeks until April 22,’ he began.
‘The good news is, it will include a song with Van Dyke Parks called “Emergency Calls Only” and it is one of the most honest songs I’ve ever written.’
The album was originally supposed to be released on April 1, and will now be available on Johns’ birthday.
He went on to explain why it was so important for him to include this song on the album, despite delaying the release date.
Album delay: Johns recently said he came ‘bearing bad and good news’ that his new album would be delayed and added that he hoped his fans were ‘not too mad at me’. Pictured with Van Dyke Parks (centre) and Kimbra (right)
‘A little bit of an explanation for why the inclusion of this song has delayed the release…’ he said.
‘As I’ve been going through the mix process there’s been one song that has required a little bit more work to get it to the point it needed to be.’
He said he ‘was faced with the decision to choose one of three options’, one of which was to ‘include this song on the record incomplete’.
Another option saw him ‘leave the song off the record entirely and hit the April 1 release date’.
The third option – and the one he ultimately chose – was to ‘spend the extra time needed on the track and move the release of FutureNever by a few weeks’.
‘I think I understand you guys pretty well after being more engaged on here and I feel I owe you the best record I can possibly create, I want to deliver the creative vision to you all without compromise,’ he said.
Getting it right: He added: ‘I think I understand you guys pretty well after being more engaged on here and I feel I owe you the best record I can possibly create, I want to deliver the creative vision to you all without compromise’
Source: Daily Mail
