Frankie Jonas has opened up about his struggles with addiction and suicidal thoughts prior to getting sober a year and a half ago on his Tik Tok account @frankiejonastherapist.
The 20-year-old brother of Nick Jonas, Joe Jonas and Kevin Jonas talked about his struggles after a fan asked him to explain his experience and how he overcame addiction.
@frankiejonastherapistReply to @nataliexjackson♬ original sound – Frankie Jonas775
“This is by no means the eloquent explanation I hope to give on a much more serious mode than this. However from a very young age I struggled with drinking and drugging as an escape because I hated life, and I didn’t want to be here,” Jonas said. “I eventually, after many years of trying to kill myself accidentally, came to a point where I was going to do it for real.”
Jonas said something intervened and he went to treatment, which saved his life.
“I couldn’t be more grateful for the fact that I’m alive today because my world has changed so beautifully and so astronomically, and I am not that person anymore. I couldn’t be more grateful that I’m alive and happy.”
In an earlier video, Jonas described himself as a “sober drug addict” while answering a question from a follower about struggling with imposter syndrome.
@frankiejonastherapistReply to @notsarahlol♬ original sound – Frankie Jonas775
“I am a sober drug addict who goes to Columbia University now,” he said. “I don’t belong there! It’s okay that I feel that, but it doesn’t make me less than anyone else, it doesn’t make me more than anyone else. It’s also good to understand that imposter syndrome can sometimes lead to a messiah complex, and that’s not good either. But it’s okay to be in the middle.”
He added that he’s proud of himself for making it there in the first place.
“It doesn’t matter if I get A’s or F’s — I f—ing made it,” he said. “Like, the middle of the pack is a great place to be as long as I’m comfortable with myself. My mental health, stability and love of life is the priority. If I can use that while learning, then let’s get it.”
Jonas also talked about how it’s “okay not to be okay” in one of his videos.
“There was a point in my life a little over a year and a half ago where after many, many years of struggles where I thought it wasn’t okay to not be okay, it was between me or the ledge and someone asked me, point blank — before I made the worst mistake of my life — if I was actually okay,” he said in a March 14 video. “They asked me to stop lying, and I said, ‘No.’ It saved my life.”
“I couldn’t be more grateful to the universe for putting that person and those words in front of me to understand that it’s okay to not be okay because I wasn’t,” he added. “I needed help.”
Jonas called his sobriety “one of the biggest blessings and most incredible and hardest journeys of my life.”
“The first step is acceptance,” he said. “And if it’s really something you want, you know, right now AA and NA and all those sorts of programs are all online, so you can kind of do whatever. Just look up Intergroup or those sorts of resources to find Zoom meetings. It’s easy. You just have to accept that you need help and that there’s other people who can help you. So, hopefully that helps. All the love in the world.”
Jonas has 183,000 followers on his account @frankiejonastherapist. He also has 1.9 million followers on his Tik Tok account @iamfrankiejonas.
Nick said he was very proud of his brother while on The Kelly Clarkson Show earlier this month.
“I think it’s amazing,” Nick said. “He’s always had a really unique sense of humor and a unique voice as a comedic person … He’s just brilliant. And he’s, you know, he’s the star. We’re all just Frankie’s brothers now.”
