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Following her recent bipolar disorder diagnosis, Jamaican songbird Lila Iké on Sunday (February 13) broke her silence on her mental health struggle and the impact this has had on her music career.

In an interview with media personality, Yendi Phillips, which has been posted to YouTube, Iké revealed that she was formally diagnosed with bipolar disorder a few weeks prior.

“I just learned a couple weeks ago that I have bipolar disorder, I was formally diagnosed with that,” shared the 27-year-old. 

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, bipolar disorder is a mental disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, concentration, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.

Speaking of her own experience with the disorder, Iké admitted: “It’s something that I have been experiencing for a while and didn’t even recognize what was happening to me.

“Like after an extreme high or coming off of a stage or learning about a big accomplishment, I almost always go into feeling depressed.”

Common to persons who suffer from bipolar disorder, the Thy Will hitmaker explained that she has experienced her own share of manic episodes (erratic mood swings) including a very public episode that occurred last November.

Speaking about that episode, she said “recently I had one of those moments, wasn’t sleeping, can’t seem to just steady myself and calm myself down.  So within that moment you know, I’m scared, I’m paranoid, I’m thinking the only way to protect myself is if I go on my Live, cause there’s no way anyone is going to hurt me in front of everybody watching.

“So I went on my Live and at this point, I’m crying telling people ‘yo dem trying to kill me and I need y’all to save me, somebody call Protoje, Jaz Elise, Sevana … somebody’.”

She added: “And these are all people that I could have just picked up my phone and called.”

The Where I’m Coming From singer explained that not long after her Instagram Live, her friend and fellow singer, Jaz Elize assisted her in calming down took her to the hospital, where she was later medicated and ultimately diagnosed.

In the interview, Iké explained that the experience has caused her to reflect on herself as an artist and as such, “Everything that I stand for and everything that I believe in, I have put it into my music.

“My main purpose here is just to make music that inspires people, music that inspires the youth dem, music that is positive, music that is uplifting, that’s literally all that I’m trying to contribute.”

Following her diagnosis, the I Spy singer says her manager Protoje has since lightened her workload, deciding that she would release just one single per year and based on how well she is able to manage, will hopefully progress into performing at more concerts and stage shows.