“Saturday Night Live” star Bowen Yang is doing “great” after taking a hiatus from his podcast to work on his mental health.
“My mental health is great,” the comedian exclusively told Pvnew at the 2023 American Museum of Natural History Gala Thursday night.
“It’s very good,” he added. “I had a really rough patch and people were very patient with me. It’s hard but you know, I barreled through. I powered through.”
The “Fire Island” star, 33, announced in July that he was taking a temporary break from his podcast, “Las Culturistas,” to treat “bad bouts of depersonalization.”
“I am doing my best to get better!” Yang wrote on an Instagram Story at the time.
According to the Mayo Clinic, depersonalization is a psychological condition in which people have out-of-body experiences that cause them to believe that things around them aren’t real.
The disorder is more common for people who’ve had traumatic experiences.
Yang has previously detailed that his trauma stems from when his parents sent him to gay conversion therapy when he was 17 years old.
He told Rolling Stone magazine earlier this year that he is still trying to process the experience “and understand it a different way.”
He added, “I think ultimately that made me value and, in a literal sense, appreciate what I’m able to withstand and survive. You get this sense that you can overcome.”
He has said he’s now in a “healthy place” with his parents.
As Yang continues to work on his mental health, he’s also gearing up for the holiday season, which he’s planning to spend with family, including his older sister and her children.
“I am planning a trip with my nieces and nephews and maybe the rest of my family, [but] most importantly, the kids,” he enthused. “I think we’re going to go to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Really excited. Yeah.”
Yang added that he’s a “generous” uncle up to a point.
“I’m generous,” he explained. “I’m cool, but I’m also like, I think I also want to, like, give them a nice, healthy distance from, like, you know, being too spoiled.”
Yang noted that his nieces and nephews have grown up “with a lot of things” that he never got “and I will do a good job of reminding them of that every time!”
