Sasha opens up about anxiety attacks
"It was right at the peak of my rise to fame"
DJs are no strangers to mental health issues. At the end of last year, Benga opened up about his bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, while Nicky Romero followed suit by talking about his troubles with anxiety and Avicii is set to quit touring altogether.
Sasha, who recently announced a joint tour with John Digweed, has joined those three in discussing problems he's encountered, telling the Guardian how being thrusted into the limelight in the '90s contributed to him suffering from anxiety attacks.
In an interview with Mixmag contributor Kate Hutchinson, he said: “It was right at the peak of my rise to fame. I just couldn’t cope with it. I couldn’t cope with everyone knowing me, I couldn’t cope with the lifestyle - it was mad."
Saying that he learned to cope with the anxious periods after talking to a friend and a doctor, the recent Late Night Tales artist said the kind of music being played influenced the strength of the anxiety attacks.
"Music would trigger them off. I thought I was losing my mind. The more intense the music, the more intense the anxiety got. It was quite a hard period of time: I was in the DJ booth with thousands of people in front of me going crazy but I was thinking I was losing the plot.”
Head here to check out the full interview and read his views on dance music in the United States and that article by Bloc's George Hull.
Dave Turner is Mixmag's Digital News Editor, follow him on Twitter