Justin Was '12 or 13' When He First Started Smoking Weed
By episode five in the docu-series, Bieber went into his drug-use history and said he was “12 or 13” when he first started smoking weed. The admission led him to share that at one point — during what his manager Scooter Braun called Bieber’s “dark period,” which took place from when the singer was about 19 to 21 — Justin was “sipping lean,” “popping pills,” “doing molly,” also known as MDMA or ecstasy, “shrooms … everything.”
The star called his drug period an “escape” for him, when he was young and experimenting while growing up. However, it started to get out of control because of the pressure he felt from the massive spotlight on him as he got more famous.
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Justin Had a Moment He Felt Like He 'Was Dying' from Drug Use
“I decided to stop,” he said, referring to his drug use, because he felt like he “was dying.”
“My security and stuff were coming into the room at night to check my pulse,” he continued. “People don’t know how serious it got. It was legit, crazy scary.”
“I was waking up in the morning and the first thing I was doing was popping pills and smoking a blunt and starting my day,” he said.
His turning point came when he asked God to help him through this hard time. He eventually stopped and got clean but didn’t get to the root of what he was going through, so he would cycle back into his old habits.
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Hailey Baldwin Called Her Parents After the Proposal & Asked Them to 'Stop Me from Doing Something Crazy'
The model talked about a phone call she had with her parents after Justin had proposed.
“I remember calling my parents when we decided to get married and I said, ‘This is the time I need you to stop me from doing something crazy, if you think this is a bad idea,’ ” Baldwin said. The model then shared her parents’ candid response, which was, “Honestly, we think that this is meant to be for you and we know that this is what you want so, we trust you.”
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Justin Never Had 'Security' or 'Consistency' Within His Family
During this “dark period,” Bieber explained that he may have been able to make better decisions if he had a secure family-life foundation while growing up.
“I never had that security in a family,” he said. “I never had that consistency. I never had the reliability and the accountability and all these things that make you understand the way the world works.”
“Looking back, those things kind of shape why you feel the way you feel about yourself,” he said, adding, “I would feel like a bad person.”
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Justin's Doctor Diagnosed Him with Lyme Disease & Epstein-Barr After Prior Bipolar Misdiagnosis
By 2019, Bieber had gone through a series of medical tests to find out what was really going on with his health, which is when his doctor diagnosed him with Lyme disease and Epstein-Barr.
Justin’s doctor and Lyme disease specialist Dr. Erica Lehman explained that people with the disease experience “mood changes, irritability, depression, anxiety” and that “Justin fits the picture of these symptoms.”
Epstein-Barr, “which is mono (mononucleosis),” Justin explained, is another disease he suffers from, which can make him very sick and tired.
Dr. Daniel Amen, Justin’s brain health doctor, said that Justin had seen a psychiatrist who diagnosed him with bi-polar disorder, without ever looking at his brain. But when Dr. Amen looked at his brain, he knew Justin was not bipolar.
After this trying period in his life, Justin said, “It feels good now to know why I feel so crappy all the time.”
Wife Hailey added, “Now that we have all of the answers and we know what it is and we know, how to alleviate it and fix it, I think he’s honestly not only healthier than he’s ever been but on the road to maintaining a healthier life than he’s ever had, which is awesome.”
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The Newlyweds Still Get Nervous Around Each Other
Even after meeting as kids, dating and getting married (twice), the couple admitted to still feeling butterflies around each other.
“He still makes me a little nervous sometimes,” Baldwin said before adding, “Like, I blush and I get a little bit like cheesy — can’t help it.”
Bieber came on next to say, “Sometimes I still get nervous with her in the room.”
“I don’t know, she still makes me nervous because I love her so much and I want her to like my stuff,” he continued. “And, it’s about her too, so I’m singing about her — it’s a weird thing, but it’s awesome.”
The singer then shared a sweet story about a time he planned an impromptu dinner for him and his wife as an excuse to get her out of the studio so he could finish a song.
“I was feeling pressure about her being in there but I didn’t want her to feel bad about it,” he recalled while smiling and explaining that he had to quickly reserve a table for two to carry out his made-up plan.
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The Couple Didn't Want to Live Together Before Marriage
Despite their non-traditional upbringings in the entertainment industry, the Biebers wanted to move forward with their lives together in a traditional manner.
Baldwin explained during episode seven that the two wanted to move in together and experience living together but they “didn’t believe in doing that until we were married, so we got legally married” first.
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Hailey’s Opinion on Justin’s Music Is ‘Overly Valued’
As Bieber geared up for his fifth studio album Changes, the pressure was mounting for him to deliver a hit album since it had been four years since his last. During episode four, the closest people to Bieber — friend and creative director of the star’s Drew clothing line Ryan Good, manager Scooter Braun and producer and songwriter Poo Bear — all agreed that Baldwin was an integral part of the star’s music-making process.
“Hailey actually chimes in because she has a really good sense of music,” Braun said. “He trusts her sense of music and what she likes.”
“Oh, Hailey’s there,” Poo Bear added. “We look at her like, ‘Do you love this?’ and it matters. We care about what Hailey thinks. Her opinion is overly valued.”
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Hailey Baldwin Admitted to 'Crying Herself to Sleep' Before Becoming a Wife
By episode eight, the segment that focused on their wedding, Baldwin shared a bit of her life before she was with Bieber.
She started by sharing that she was at her sister’s wedding in 2017 when she “couldn’t stop crying” while back in her hotel room with her parents.
“I was really lonely for a really long time,” she said, adding that although she was around people all the time and experiencing so many cool things, she would come home and “cry herself to sleep” because she felt alone.
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Scooter Braun Asked Justin's Health Coach to Be on Set During 'Yummy' Video
After making great strides in his health journey, marrying Baldwin and working on his album, Bieber hit a rough patch during his “Yummy” video shoot.
Bieber’s manager Braun may have foreseen that Bieber might need support on set, since it had been years since the singer had filmed a music video, and had asked Bieber’s health coach, Dr. Buzz Mingin, to be on set. Braun’s intuition proved to be right and Dr. Mingin sprang into action when Bieber started to struggle during his shoot.
“He just had a really tough time,” Dr. Mingin said of the singer. The doctor then said that he and Bieber had developed a routine he could do when he’s feeling stressed called “havening,” which is “a psychosensory technique that actually raises the feel-good chemicals in your brain on demand.”
The star eventually made it through and released his “Yummy” video in January 2020.
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