A Deeper Look Into What Justin Bieber Endured and Why He Was so "Lonely"
This incredible edit is made by @outlyning on Instagram.
Justin Bieber released “Lonely” with American record producer, Benny Blanco, on October 15, 2020. The song talks about exactly what you’d expect it talk about—loneliness. It’s a ballad about how lonely Justin has been, how everyone knows his story and name, but no cares about him even when he was sick.
The video features Jacob Tremblay who plays a young version of Justin, dressed up in the iconic white & purple outfit that Justin wore on the My World Tour.
Photo: Lonely music video / AP
I’ve been documenting Justin’s journey in the industry and more specifically his downfall, since 2013. You can literally go to the Master Post and scroll through it to get an extensive description of everything he went through. Some things I don’t even remember.
When did it all start?
Justin’s downfall started after his breakup with Selena Gomez at the end of 2012. We’re not gonna get into her nor Jelena because I’m not in the mood for a headache. But if you’re in the mood for a headache, check out the Jelena tag:
The video showcases the My World era, but that’s actually not where Justin’s problems stem. However, that was when he blew tf up. Homeboy became a worldwide success overnight. It was not gradual by any means. It was like BOOM, JUSTIN BIEBER…. EVERYWHERE.
That’s good for his career, but for his mental health? It was a huge high and just like a high from drugs, there’s a low. I made this connection because I have years of information on Justin, but also because I lead a pretty active life away from this blog.
When Alana and I have so much to do, so many parties to attend, events to host, places to be, and then it all stops and things become calm… there’s a low. And every single time we feel this low, Alana looks at me and says, “damn.. imagine how celebrities feel? After a show? After tour? I’d snort cocaine too.” I kid you not, this is a real conversation we’ve had.
Tour is a very lonely place and it’s why celebrities lose their mind on tour. It’s funny because you don’t think you’d be lonely there, right? You perform for thousands of people a night. You’re adored by millions. You’re THE STAR. But then bloop, you’re also depressed.
Getty Images
It’s the low that comes after the high and you can incorporate this to yourself as well. Maybe this will lead to a self-realization about you just like it did for me.
Justin’s “high” was like high HIGH. Not Shawn Mendes high. Not Harry Styles high. It was HIGH. Like Mount Everest High. So obviously the low was gonna bury his ass… and it almost did.
I wrote high so many times the word started looking incorrect omg
This is where people come in because, say it with me friends, YES PEOPLE IMPACT US. I hate when I talk about Justin and Selena’s past and people are like “well what does Selena have to do with it?” or “are you blaming her for his actions???” Use your brains. I know you can.
Aside from the PR shenanigans that Justin and Selena shoved down our throats in 2011, they had a nice relationship in 2012. We’ve spoken about this before. Justin opened up a lot to her and told her all his life problems. She was his person and she was the person that “gets him.” This is also why he was suicidal when she was doing everything she did to him. It was next level betrayal. When I say she was “his person,” I don’t mean she was his person out of many. No.
Justin was that dude in a relationship that cut off all his outside friends and life for his partner. Yes… he was following Sel’s orders like a dog, but he cut off a lot of people that were not there for him after the breakup! It’s like “oh suddenly you need us?”
So the loneliness did start during the My World era, but don’t be fooled by the video. It wasn’t the root. It was the Believe era that was this close to being his last era. Remember how I told you his security was checking his pulse and breathing during that time? It’s fine if you don’t remember because Justin confirmed it earlier this year in his docu-series.
The Eras
The My World era (2010-2011) was the high.
The Believe era (2012-2013) was the low.
The Journals era (2013-2014) was the breakup recovery, healing process, whore phase, etc..
The Purpose era (2015-2017) was a crap ton in one. It was the high of “I missed this!” but then he hit highs he’s never hit with My World so then boom, there was the low. It was good and bad. This is where everything he thought he worked through arose again. Also, Selena was on/off in his life so that’s never a good time for anyone.
The droplets era (2017-2018) was the “I have nobody. Oh I’m back with my ex-girlfriend oh yes here we are buying crystal meth together. I’m a drug user again.”
The “I’m engaged then married, and here’s Changes” era (2018—present) was the era of full recovery, trying to heal, understanding himself, and getting to the ROOT of the problem not the surface.
A lof of that is explained in the Jailey dynamic:
I broke down each year of Justin’s life EXTENSIVELY in the “Justin Bieber: As A Person part 2” post. I suggest you read it for more information. We touch upon his struggles with Selena, Hailey, and individually how he was impacted and doing during each year in the industry.
I’m going to be answering comments in that post ^ above as well as this one, but a reader came back to that post after the docuseries came out and said “well how does lupus fit in your timeline now?”
And that is a GREAT question.
If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw my dramatic breakdown about how I felt betrayed that we didn’t know about his diagnosis through sources despite me telling Jailey’s truth all along. I wasn’t serious btw…. it was a joke.
Justin’s Lyme Disease Diagnosis
To add to the “Justin as a person part 2” post, Justin was indeed struggling with Lyme disease when he got the diagnosis in late 2019. That explained a lot of his mental health issues, but that doesn’t mean he never struggled with drugs. As my post states, 2019 was a year that he was weaning off the hard drugs from 2018. I didn’t say he was high every day. I don’t know the details of his drug habits in 2019 or whatever he did, and that’s what I stated.
GEVA, EDPI, VICE
We wrote a whole post about this:
Justin’s depression and anxiety were part of the reasons why he did drugs. What he didn’t know was that his mental health was affected by Lyme disease so that gave him a reason as to WHY he was so depressed and anxious all the time. Then, his doctors treated him accurately for Lyme disease and he started feeling better so he didn’t feel like he had to do drugs.
Justin was never “addicted” to drugs, I guess you could say. He was able to wean himself on and off the drugs through religion. It’s very interesting because most people would just go to rehab, but I guess Justin would go to a Bible study and be determined not to do drugs LMAO. It takes a certain type of strength to accomplish that.
Whenever I bring up Justin and his Lyme disease, there is always a group of smart asses in the comment section like “oh so Justin has Lyme disease, but Selena doesn’t have lupus?”
For maybe the 9000th time, I’ll repeat myself—I never said Selena doesn’t have lupus. I said she goes to rehab because of her drug addiction and she’s using lupus to cover up her drug addiction. She should take notes from Justin who was out here discussing in-depth his issues with drugs. He never said that he’s never done drugs and that it was ONLY Lyme disease that caused his issues.
So that’s that.
Married and Lonely? Hmm…
I posted about Justin on my Instagram (exposingsmgblog) and someone commented saying “well if Justin is happy with Hailey, why is he releasing a song that is sad?”
I think what people don’t understand is that when Justin reflects on his past through music, it doesn’t mean that his current life is bad. It’s just trauma and experiences that he hasn’t opened up about before.
When Justin got back together with Hailey, he jumped into a whole NEW thing without even healing from his past. I spoke about this in the Jailey dynamic post so go read that for more information (already linked above). Hailey had to clean up a mess that wasn’t hers.
This is the reason why a lot of people on the inside thought that Jailey wouldn’t last or that Justin is a fcking moron for proposing to Hailey knowing damn well he’s got issues. But what did I tell you? Hailey knew all of that and wanted him despite his issues and to Justin, which translated as “she loves me even when I’m at my worse.”
However, being with Hailey doesn’t undo the trauma. Jumping into something new will not fix the past.
Someone tell Ariana Grande that, please. What did she do when her relationship with Mac Miller (RIP </3) hit the rocks? She got engaged to Pete Davidson.
What did Demi Lovato do right after rehab? Jump into like 4 relationships, one of them which a psycho proposed to her!
Therefore, don’t interpret Justin singing about depressing things as “he’s unhappy.” The fact that he’s able to reflect on his past and even sing about it, shows that he’s healing within at the root level and not just on the surface.
When you start to talk about something, it’s a good sign. Justin even admits that going to the studio to sing Lonely was very painful for him. Healing and recovery is a process. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions. It’s not “I’m married woohoo the past ten years of my life don’t impact me anymore.”
People can be full blown adults in a relationship and with children, and still not heal over childhood trauma.
Also, Jailey is currently going through something right now. All marriages are full of ups and downs obviously, but they’re working on it. They don’t ignore their problems. I’ll keep you guys updated.
So what exactly did he go through…..?
I know a lot about Justin and what the media put him through, but even I don’t know everything. There are some things that he hasn’t even spoken about that go into it. I’m going to do my best to break it all down.
Selena
They were so iconic lmaoooo
His breakup with Selena took a toll on him. Her emotional manipulation, abuse, confusion, and yadda yadda, did a number on him. He wasn’t able to trust anyone fully and he strayed away from relationships for literally six years. He had commitment issues and so his real relationship after Selena was…. Hailey. And even then Hailey took a long ass time to win his trust.
Justin has definitely dated girls in the timespan between the breakup with Selena in 2012 and then proposing to Hailey in 2018, but it was never serious.
So that’s one.
His Parents
His parents impacted him SO SO SO SO SOOOOOOOO much.
First of all, his father was barely in his life and only appeared routinely when he was a big star. Justin literally tweeted in 2009 asking his father if he’s coming to his show.
That’s depressing.
His dad was always around when Justin was just getting in trouble.
A source from Justin’s hometown back in Canada said that Justin was always desperate to impress Jeremy who was 100% a bad influence on him. Jeremy was described as “a stereotypical bad-ass” and Justin wanted to impress him by also being a bad-ass.
“Look, Dad! Look how many lines I can do in 12 seconds!”
Second of all, his fallout with his mom broke him a lot. I don’t think you guys understand how close Justin and Pattie were. It was always the 2 of them. She was there every single step of the way as he transitioned into a superstar. She was on tour with him and they were SUPER close.
Getty Images
At the time, Pattie hated Selena. Now, look at what time does? Now Selena and Pattie are arguably closer than Pattie and Justin.
In the Justin AAP post I linked, I spoke about how Justin’s humble factor was a big reason millions adored him. That plus the fact he was seen as a “family man” who was close to his mom.
Then what happened? She was too busy playing celebrity in Hawaii as her son was drowning his pain in drugs.
Any veteran reader knows I can’t stand Justin’s parents and I never could.
It gets even worse! Not only was she just not in his life, but she also sided with Selena’s psycho lies over him. Justin was in disbelief at how his mother didn’t believe him.
On top OF THAT, she was part of the “parent contract” alongside his dad (and Selena) which we exposed in 2016.
There came a point in time where Justin felt like he had NOBODY. There was no one he could trust. No one who genuinely cared about him. No one.
This is why he views Hailey as such an important part of his recovery process. She helped him a lot behind the scenes and never broadcasted it.
These are just a few examples from his personal life.
The Media
Another thing that played a role was the media and everyone who hated him without a valid reason. Since his debut, Justin had such an emotional hold on people. That emotional hold was good and bad. For some, it turned them into fans that tattooed his face on their body. For others, it turned them into serial haters who compared him to those who have committed genocide such as Hitler. He was compared to literal murderers.
Justin’s hate was on a different level. It was mass hate. There was a huge petition going around wanting to deport him. The media was actively against him.
It was literal insanity and maybe you guys weren’t around for it, but it doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. Justin’s fame and craze was compared to The Beatles and Michael Jackson. All of these new celebrities haven’t amassed 3% of the CRAZE that went on in the early 2010s.
Of course with that craze, came the hate. It’s the same as I’ve preached at the beginning of this post—with the highs comes the lows.
With all the media harassment, Justin developed a hatred for everyone and everything. This goes back to his 2016 phase of “no photos.” He wanted NOTHING to do with the industry or with anyone. Unfortunately, that came at the sake of his fans.
Justin once told one of his friends, “I’m hated by everyone. I’m under so much pressure – I just don’t know what to do.” He didn’t understand why everyone was so persistent in making him the bad guy. This was in 2014 and that was a direct quote of Justin saying that
Of course, that’s not all of it.
Dark Hollywood
Then we had Justin’s experience in Dark Hollywood.
I’m not really clear on what that even means, but y’all know how we describe Dark Hollywood. Be creative and connect the dots. If I could list examples, I would.
And yeah… I think that’s all I can write for now.
I hope I was able to clear up things for you. Shoutout to Justin for finally being able to talk about his past. The more he talks, the more he’ll prove our old posts correct ;) let me know if you have any questions, I’ll be answering.
I hope you enjoyed the post! I love you all. You can comment anonymously so take advantage of that! I will be replying back.