NEED TO KNOW
Noah Cyrus is happier and healthier than ever.
In her new digital cover story, Cyrus opens up to PEOPLE about overcoming a “dark” time, which included confronting a Xanax addiction and taking control of her mental health.
“I feel a huge disconnect from the girl who was really struggling with addiction and the place that I was in,” says Cyrus, 25, who got hooked on the downer while in a former relationship.
Leeor Wild
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She knew she needed help when she fell asleep during an interview while promoting a project in 2020.
“Whenever I look at that time in my life, I’m just really deeply saddened for myself, because only you really know what you’re feeling inside, and it’s a feeling that I don’t wish on anyone, to not want to be alive anymore,” Cyrus says. “I very much encourage people to talk about things if they’re open and if they’re ready to try to seek that help for themselves. Because I do think that you get to another point in life if you have the ability to try to take on the challenge of working and working on that process. I think there is a place that you get to where you have a much better outlook on things, and you start to see a much more positive place that you’re going to get to.”
Cyrus — who released her sophomore album I Want My Loved Ones to Go with Me in July — found relief when she reprioritized herself and sought treatment.
“I was struggling with severe depression and severe anxiety, and that was really hard to juggle while touring and not taking proper care of myself or allowing myself to do the proper therapy,” she says.
Now, Cyrus is more mindful about taking breaks in between projects.
“The one thing that I’m really passionate about and that I know is that I want to keep living life. I do feel like I’m in the happiest and strongest place in my life,” she adds.
Leeor Wild
Making music has been “healing,” too, Cyrus says.
“It was quite a cathartic experience creating the record,” she says of I Want My Loved Ones to Go With Me, which she’ll tour this fall. “Some of the songs do feel a bit sacred and a bit spiritual in a way, where you may not be exactly talking about religion, but it feels like you’re connecting to something larger than yourself.”
Cyrus also found a supportive partner in her fiancé, the fashion designer known as Pinkus, with whom she hopes to start a family.
Leeor Wild
“I want to be a mom. This is something that I want more than any other goal in my life,” she says. “And that also ignited so much more excitement for me. I want to be alive for this; I want this to happen. And that was just something that I wasn’t used to feeling, because before, I didn’t really feel that connected to life. So this is a very strong place that I’m newly in; I’m in the happiest and best, most secure spot I’ve been in in a very long time . . . and I think that the album was a huge helping hand in getting to this place.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
If you or someone you know needs mental health help, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
