Ariana Grande Reveals How Writing 'Get Well Soon' Helped With Her Mental Health

Ariana Grande is opening up about her mental health, this time in song form.

In a new interview for Paper magazine's new issue, the singer revealed that the song "Get Well Soon," a collaboration with Pharrell Williams on her new Sweetener album, is about her struggles with anxiety.

During the interview, Sivan comments that the song "shook [him] to [his] core," and asked Grande how she was able to be so vulnerable on the track.

"[Pharrell] kind of forced it out of me, because I was in a really bad place mentally," she revealed. "I've always had anxiety, I've had anxiety for years. But when I got home from tour it reached a very different, intense peak. It became physical and I was not going out at all, and I felt like I was outside my body."

"I'd have these spells every now and then where I felt like I was having déjà vu, but like 24/7 for three months at a time. It was really weird, and all that was on my mind. [Pharrell] was like, 'You have to write about it. You need to make this into music and get this shit out, and I promise it will heal you.'"

It turns out, he was right. "It definitely helped," Grande told Sivan. "It still took me a few weeks to feel better, but looking back at it now from a healthier place, it's probably one of the most important songs I'll ever write."

The lyrics to the song are incredibly powerful, and it's no wonder that Sivan felt like he was "punched in the gut" the first time he heard it: "Want you to get better/My life is so controlled by the what-if's.../ Is there anybody else whose mind does this, mmm?.../ Is there such a ladder to get above this?" they read.

In an emotional interview earlier this week, she explained why it was so important to her to put a song like "Get Well Soon" into the world. "It's just about just being there for each and helping each other through scary times and anxiety," she said on Beats 1 radio. "There's some dark shit out there, man, and we just have to be there for each other as much as we can because you never fucking know. I just wanted to do something to make people feel good and less alone."

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