Shawn Mendes has stopped taking his anxiety medication.
Shawn Mendes
The 'Youth' singer used to take beta blockers to calm his anxiety before he stepped onto stage but he has now decided to stop the medication.
Speaking to the crowd on stage, he said: "As a performer you get very nervous, sometimes you freak out and things can become a lot for you. And there's medicine and things you can do to help and I meditate and I do a lot of things. There's a medicine called beta blockers and basically it's a very calm medicine, but what it does is it slows your heart rate down so you can be less stressed out and calm down and breathe, but nevertheless it's medicine and I want you guys to know that for the last year I've been taking the medicine that's been slowing down my heart rate so that I can be calm on stage. I want you guys to know because I think it's important you know it's my very first day back without that medicine. If you get nervous it means you care and I care about nothing more in the world than you guys, so that's why my hands shake."
Shawn previously admitted he is "the most nervous guy".
He said: "Now I'm 20, and everybody who was 15 listening to me back then is now 20. And they have grown up, too. I'm not afraid of [losing my audience]. I'm not afraid of becoming more mature ... How do we make it sound like I'm the most confident dude ever, but the message is the absolute opposite? [In reality,] I'm the most nervous guy. Really, what I started to realise is that when you get nervous around people, when you get nervous on stage, it genuinely means you care. And the second you stop getting nervous is maybe when there's a problem, you know? So, I really take nerves to heart. Nerves mean that there's something inside thinking like you need to care about this."
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