Ed Sheeran Opens Up About Addiction in a Rare Interview

Ed Sheeran sat down for a rare interview during an online summit on anxiety and well being with Hay House earlier this month.

During the interview, the 28-year-old musician opened up about his lifelong battle with addiction, whether that was with alcohol, food or other things.

“I have a very addictive personality. Very, very addictive personality,” Ed admitted at one point in the rare appearance. “I’m reading Elton John’s book at the moment and there are so many things that he did that I do.”

He continued, “He would be like, ‘I would just go on an ice cream binge and eat four f***ing desserts until I throw it up’, and I was like, ‘I’ve done that before’. Or his martini binges, where he sees how many he can drink. And I’m like, ‘I’ve done that before too’. He ends up getting really f***ing sad and depressed and all of these things can can add to that.”

Ed went on, revealing that he has learned to handle his addictive personality with moderation in everything.

“I think things like sugar, sweet stuff, junk food, cocaine, alcohol, it feels good the more you do, but it’s the worst thing for you, I think,” he says. “I think with addiction, it’s just very hard to moderate, but moderation is the key.”

“I’m covered in tattoos and I kind of don’t do things by halves so if I’m gonna drink, I see no point in having a glass of wine. I’d rather have two bottles,” Ed shared. “Having a glass of wine is having something in moderation and probably isn’t going to affect your day the next day. But two bottles of wine probably might make you quite sad.”

Ed also revealed that he has suffered panic attacks and struggled more with addiction while on tour.

Click inside to see what Ed Sheeran shared about suffering from panic attacks on tour…

“It’s such a weird existence living on tour because your life is on pause. Nothing really happens. Everything else goes on around you. So you’ll come back home and life has moved forward three years,” he said. “Every day is a party because every day there’ll be a new person in the town you’re visiting that you haven’t seen for a while.

He adds, “When I go to Manchester, I see my friend Sophie. And when I’m in Glasgow, I see my mate Graham. So every day you’re drinking and it becomes normal. It was down to a bad diet, drinking and then not seeing sunlight at all. The buses would park underneath the arenas. Sleep on the bus all day and then wake up and then come out do the show, drink, get back on the bus. I didn’t see sunlight for, like, maybe like four months, and it’s all fun and games at the start, then it starts getting just sad. So I think that’s probably the lowest that I’ve been and I kind of ballooned.”

His drinking then led to panic attacks, which made him question the meaning of life.

“I felt, ‘What was the point?’ In a dark way, like, ‘Why am I around? What is the point?’”

Now, Ed says that wife Cherry Seaborn is helping him overcome his addictive nature and calm him with healthy eating habits and just taking one day at a time.

“She eats quite healthily. So I started eating quite healthily with her. She doesn’t drink that much so I wasn’t drinking,” he said, and Cherry also helps him through some of the panic attacks he still suffers from.

Ed adds, “Sometimes she’ll be like, ‘Cool. Yeah, we’ll leave,’ but sometimes I am just being paranoid.”

Late last year, Ed announced he was taking a break from music and social media after being on tour for a long while.