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“My wife took me because she said, ‘Something about your personality doesn’t feel like it’s bipolar,'” says West, before opening up about how his mental health impacts his behavior.
In a new interview that was posted just two days after Kanye “Ye” West turned every head in the world with his and wife Bianca Censori’s Grammys red carpet stunt, the Yeezy founder and rapper is opening up about his mental health.
West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, sat down with Justin LaBoy for the latest episode of The Download podcast where he opened up about his mental health journey, with his eldest daughter with ex Kim Kardashian, North West, sitting nearby.
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There, he gave credit to his wife for helping him to get the correct diagnosis after being previously diagnosed with bipolar after a “psychiatric emergency” triggered a hospital stay in 2016.
“My wife took me because she said, ‘Something about your personality doesn’t feel like it’s bipolar, I’ve seen bipolar before,” West said, as covered by E! News. And, according to the rapper, she was right.
“Come to find out, it’s really a case of autism that I have,” he told LaBoy. He then explained how that can have an impact on his behavior and why it sometimes seems like he digs in on controversial stances or pivots in new directions spontaneously.
“You’re like, ‘Oh man, I’m gonna wear this Trump hat ’cause I just like Trump in general, and when people tell you to not do it,” said West, “And that’s my problem, when fans tell me to do my album a certain way, I’ll do it the opposite way.”
He explained that this behavioral tendency has also made it challenging for those around him to help. “It’s so difficult for them because this is like a grown man, you can’t tell him,” he explained. “You can’t take control of his bank account. You can’t control what I’m saying on Twitter.”
Control is a huge thing for West, with the artist and provocateur explaining that it’s when he feels things aren’t in his control that he starts to struggle.
Referring to the antisemitic controversy that ended his relationship with Adidas in 2022, West said that people in his life were telling him, “You can’t leave Adidas, why would you leave all that money?”
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“But a lot of what was sending me into the episodes … the constant feeling of not being in control, spun me out of control,” he explained.
After his original bipolar diagnosis, West had opened up about taking medication to help manage his mental health, but he told LaBoy that’s no longer the case. “I haven’t taken the medication since I found out it wasn’t bipolar, that it wasn’t the right diagnosis,” he said.
“It’s finding stuff that doesn’t block the creativity, obviously that’s what I bring to the world,” West expanded. “It’s worth the ramp up, as long as y’all get the creativity.”
It’s not the first time West has suggested that the medication he’s taken has impacted his creativity. In 2019, he controversially tweeted out, per Page Six, “I’m loving the new music I’ve been working on. 6 months off meds I can feel me again.”
The latest revelation comes on the heels of West and Censori’s shocking display of her nude body on the 2025 Grammy Awards red carpet Sunday night.
After dropping a coat to reveal a sheer dress, the couple posed for photos and then left the carpet, skipping the ceremony, with West touting to TMZ afterwards, “We beat the Grammys.”
