Daniel Johns Opens Up On 'Serious' Anxiety Disorder: 'I Was Medicating With Alcohol A Lot'

Daniel Johns has discussed past struggles with alcohol and stage fright when speaking to Andrew Denton on Channel 7’s Interview last night, opening up on a "serious" anxiety disorder he's had for fifteen years. 

When talking about his peculiar behaviour in 2015, which saw the Silverchair frontman convicted and fined for drink driving, as well as being hospitalised after falling outside a Sydney bar, Johns said, "I wasn't well but it wasn't what people thought it was.

"I have had a pretty serious anxiety disorder for fifteen years and it got really bad at a point and I was not coping and didn't know how to deal with it."

The 39-year-old said he tried therapy and medication to deal with his anxiety. 

"I was medicating my anxiety with alcohol, a lot, and I didn’t know what it was. I was misdiagnosed a lot of things," he said.

"I didn’t know what I had, so I didn’t know how to deal with it, and the only thing that I found that worked was alcohol, so I was drinking alcohol to keep that at bay.

"But it didn’t work, and then I got diagnosed with this — I don’t want to say what it is — this anxiety disorder, and now I am a perfect specimen."

Johns also discussed his 2015 debut solo album, Talk, which he says came after a long period of writer's block. 

"It was pretty rough 'cause I felt like without that I don't have anything," he said.

"But it was because of anxiety and if  that gets out of control music doesn’t come anymore, there’s too much doubt and too much fear it won’t come out.

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"I couldn’t write words because I was so scared about what I was going to say, because I didn’t feel good, so I didn’t want to write.

"So I'd write music and it was really crazy electronic, really quite crazy music, which not many people heard. But I could very rarely put a vocal on anything 'cause I was scared what was gonna come out of my mouth."

Johns condition was so concerning, that a promised tour in support of the album never eventuated. 

"I was just too scared," Johns said.

"I was just too worried that I was going to stuff something up."

The revered songwriter also again shut down talk of a Silverchair reunion, after he told The Music in 2015, "not even for a million bucks".

"I think actually I do it for myself and as soon as I feel like I've done something artistically I very rarely want to repeat it or feel a craving or a desire to do anything similar or do a better version or different version of it," Johns told Denton.

"So every album that I do is starting again."

As TV Tonight reports, last night's episode drew a viewership of 472,000.

Johns will next perform alongside Luke Steele as DREAMS at the Sydney Opera House in support of VIVID Live this month; click on theGuide for more details. 

Check out some clips of last night's episode below.

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