While once a member of the pop group Take That, Robbie Williams decided to leave the band to explore a career as a solo artist. In 1997, he released his debut studio album with Life thru a Lens. From that moment, he has released over a dozen albums, with his last, Britpop, hitting the airwaves back in January. But recently, Williams had a different announcement when he revealed that he was diagnosed with autism.
During a recent Q&A in London, Williams shared that doctors had diagnosed him with both ADHD and autism. “I have ADHD, and I just found out I have a bit of autism as well, which I actually fucking love because it explains so much.” Joking about the diagnoses, the singer added, “It is my get-out-of-jail-free card now, and all the weird shit that I do I just say, ‘Sorry, I’m autistic’.”
Giving a glimpse into his mind, Williams recalled his thoughts somewhat spiraling out of control when sitting on a plane. “For example, this is how crazy I am: recently, I was sitting on a plane, and I thought, ‘What [if] I can have telekinesis and my intrusive thoughts tell the plane to crash itself’. So that’s the kind of level of insanity that I’m dealing with, it’s best to train my brain to do something better than worrying about having supernatural powers and crashing a plane.”
Robbie Williams Found A Way To Silence His Thoughts
Although his spiraling thoughts brought him a great deal of stress, Williams found a great way to silence the noise. “What I’m completely and utterly obsessed with is creating images and making funny things. If I’m creating images and funny things, I’m not thinking about me, because my brain is incredibly creative, and it can be creative about everything in the world that you panic or scared about.”
Williams wouldn’t let the diagnosis define him. But it did grant him some insight into his own personality and his racing thoughts. Having battled intrusive thoughts in the past, the singer was ready to take control and find balance once again.
For Williams, the diagnoses appeared to offer more answers than concerns. And with a better understanding of how his mind worked, he seemed ready to embrace the creativity that had helped him throughout his career.
(Photo by Mikkel Berg Pedersen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images)
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Author: Chris Piner