Kanye West Reveals He's Been Diagnosed With Autism
He credited his wife with first picking up on his mental health.
Kanye West is opening up about his mental health nine years after he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The rapper recently revealed that he now believes that 2016 diagnosis was incorrect, and he has since been diagnosed with autism. He credited his wife Bianca Censori with first noticing that he might be dealing with something other than bipolar disorder.
"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 during his Feb. 4 appearance on The Download podcast. "And come to find out, it's really a case of autism that I have."
West said that he can recognize how his urge to go against the grain must have been hard on those closest to him. "It's so difficult for them because this is like a grown man, you can't tell him what to do," West said. "You can't take control of his bank account. You can't control what I'm saying on Twitter."
He pointed to the dissolution of his Adidas deal in 2022 as a particularly tough moment. At the time, the shoe brand terminated its nearly decade-long partnership with West citing “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous” comments West had made.
“A lot of what was sending me into the episodes — and it’s hard — my dad and a bunch people said, ‘You can’t leave Adidas why would you leave all that money?,’” West said. “The constant feeling of not being in control, spun me out of control.”
He also touched on how his vocal support for Donald Trump during the 2020 election was spurred on by his impulse to never do what he’s told. "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... that's my problem, when fans tell me to do my album a certain way, I'll do it the opposite way," West said.
After receiving his autism diagnosis, West confirmed that he is no longer taking medication prescribed for bipolar disorder. “I haven’t taken the medication since I found out it wasn't bipolar, that it wasn't the right diagnosis," West said. "It's finding stuff that doesn't block the creativity, obviously that's what I bring to the world. It's worth the ramp up, as long as y'all get the creativity."
