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Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to The K Factor Everything

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Speaker 1: k Pop hosted by Bomhan. I am a former keypop

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Speaker 1: training who toured around the world doing content and performances,

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Speaker 1: and I'm here to shed some light on the behind

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Speaker 1: the scenes of the K pop experience. Here's a little

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Speaker 1: reminder that you can listen to this podcast on the

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Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's episode is something close to my heart and it's

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Speaker 1: about mental health. Mental health and idle stardom in South

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Speaker 1: Korea is very closely interconnected, and we're going to cover

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Speaker 1: every single part of it today. This is a two

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Speaker 1: part episode where today I will talk about mental health.

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Speaker 1: Then next week I will talk about my personal experience

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Speaker 1: as I bring on a therapist. I am going to

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Speaker 1: have therapy live on the podcast. Let's do It. Today

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Speaker 1: we are going to be talking about health and up

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Speaker 1: until about twenty years ago, it was absolutely taboo to

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Speaker 1: admit that you had any mental health struggles or you

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Speaker 1: struggle with any of these things. And it wasn't until

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Speaker 1: very recently that there was very public incidents. These public

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Speaker 1: incidents includes on April nineteenth of twenty twenty three, twenty

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Speaker 1: five year old idol Moonbin from Astro passes away in

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Speaker 1: his home. Thirteen days later, on May twelfth, Trot singer

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Speaker 1: twenty nine years old Hissu as It was away in

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Speaker 1: her hotel room. Then a couple weeks later, pop Starchy

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Speaker 1: Sumbong on June twentieth passes away as well, and they

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Speaker 1: had all passed away from a mental health crisis. This

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Speaker 1: sparked a lot of conversation about mental health in idols,

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Speaker 1: mental health in society in Korea in general, and this

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Speaker 1: is what brought about this episode. These days, idols are

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Speaker 1: trying to talk about mental health more and more. Recent

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Speaker 1: examples of Korean idols taking the helm and public talking

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Speaker 1: about mental health is in twenty twenty one, former GOT

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Speaker 1: seven member JB. He reveals that he's been diagnosed with depression.

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Speaker 1: He talks about his issues with a magazine A Lord,

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Speaker 1: revealing that he was taking medications and therapy all throughout

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Speaker 1: the era of his promotions. BTS rapper Shuga creates an

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Speaker 1: alter ego Augusty to talk about mental health with lyrics

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Speaker 1: talking about depression, and he later comes forward and says

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Speaker 1: that more idols should be talking about these issues in

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Speaker 1: general Kung Daniel creates an album around the subject of

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Speaker 1: mental health and he talks about how he suffers panic

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Speaker 1: attacks reading negative comments and he's still very much so

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Speaker 1: affected by it. Idols and famous people were caused I

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Speaker 1: say we very vaguely, but famous famous people, they're constantly

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Speaker 1: exposed to public scrutiny. The image that they have to

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Speaker 1: present a lot of the times, especially in idle stardom,

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Speaker 1: is it differs significantly from their true selves and how

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Speaker 1: they carry themselves normally. This difference from reality can kind

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Speaker 1: of create like a sense of emptiness and depression, which

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Speaker 1: eventually leads to a tragic incident. The examples where famous

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Speaker 1: people have to present and be celebrated for an image

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Speaker 1: that's different from their true selves and that leading to

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Speaker 1: mental health problems that there's another side to that where

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Speaker 1: if the famous person becomes famous for their personality and

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Speaker 1: the image that they present to variety shows and their

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Speaker 1: live streams and to their fans, once that's critiqued and

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Speaker 1: scrutinized as well, it becomes personal attacks. So there's no

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Speaker 1: way around kind of this issue of mental health to

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Speaker 1: these famous people. Either you're celebrated for something that's not you,

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Speaker 1: and then you feel empty inside, or you're celebrated and

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Speaker 1: then scrutinized for something that is you, and then it

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Speaker 1: becomes something deeper than critiquing art. It's becomes something different

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Speaker 1: from having an opinion on art. You're rather now you're

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Speaker 1: just kind of exploiting this parasocial relationship that you have

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Speaker 1: and now bullying this person that for their person. So

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Speaker 1: and there are lots of parallels in the society in

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Speaker 1: which these idols kind of grow up in and the

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Speaker 1: training system in Korea as well. In Asia, you kind

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Speaker 1: of grow up with school being your kind of number

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Speaker 1: one focus. You grow up and you go through middle school,

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Speaker 1: high school preparing for these standardized exams where you're competing

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Speaker 1: against all these other kids in the country. And that's

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Speaker 1: that the pressures that you feel from your family, from

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Speaker 1: your peers, from your parents, it's very similar to what

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Speaker 1: an idol goes through from a young age as well.

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Speaker 1: The idle auditions. It's kind of giving SATs, not gonna lie.

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Speaker 1: You go in and you are in these training camps

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Speaker 1: from when you're thirteen to fourteen year old, and you're

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Speaker 1: learning how to dance and sing, and you're competing against

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Speaker 1: all these other kids in the camp, and then you

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Speaker 1: take your test every now and then in your evaluations,

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Speaker 1: and then you're judged and you're graded, and you're critiqued

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Speaker 1: on your looks, your skill, your talent, and all these things.

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Speaker 1: And then eventually, hopefully one day, you get picked and

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Speaker 1: you join a big company, and then you go through

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Speaker 1: this over and over and over again, and you never

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Speaker 1: know if you're going to debut. You're losing time because

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Speaker 1: you're stepping away from your studies, and every day that

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Speaker 1: goes by, you're kind of staking your future a little bit.

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Speaker 1: And there's that pressure that comes with chasing and pursuing.

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Speaker 1: This mental health is seen as taboo, is not really

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Speaker 1: talked about, and the generation before was also brought up

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Speaker 1: like this in an extreme extreme way, and the people

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Speaker 1: directly in charge of these companies are also passing these

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Speaker 1: on to their idols. So now you have these workplace

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Speaker 1: environments where kids are getting yelled at some occasions and

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Speaker 1: like criticized for their looks, criticized for anything really, and

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Speaker 1: then they grow up and then they finally achieve their

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Speaker 1: dream they get to debut, and then now that parallel

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Speaker 1: extends to the public and now you're critiqued in public,

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Speaker 1: and now you're health to these standards in public, and

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Speaker 1: this lifetime of pressure causes the collapse of a lot

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Speaker 1: a lot of people. However, with these incidents bringing this

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Speaker 1: kind of issue to light, something positive that has been

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Speaker 1: coming from these mental health campaigns and these unfortunate tragic

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Speaker 1: incidents happening in the public light is that a lot

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Speaker 1: of companies and actually the government has been getting involved

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Speaker 1: in issuing these standardized contracts for miners who are trainees,

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Speaker 1: and it enforces a lot of labor laws making sure

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Speaker 1: that underage trainees can't train for a certain amount of time,

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Speaker 1: and it has a lot of clauses that protect the

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Speaker 1: trainee whether they debut or not. And I think that's

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Speaker 1: something very very positive. And actually these things came in

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Speaker 1: effect when I officially signed my contract with my K

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Speaker 1: pop company as well, and it states that if I

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Speaker 1: was dealing with depression, or if I was dealing with

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Speaker 1: any kind of mental health things, I am allowed to

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Speaker 1: speak up and allowed to seek help and ask for breaks.

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Speaker 1: I wasn't allowed to train over a certain amount of time. However,

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Speaker 1: it's not really it's not really well regulated, to be honest,

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Speaker 1: and when I was dealing with my personal issues and

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Speaker 1: I was going through my training, and then I had

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Speaker 1: a bunch of personal home life things collapse as I

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Speaker 1: was preparing for certain things and then like suffering from

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Speaker 1: certain disappointments and like not getting into certain shows. I

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Speaker 1: had this huge major collapse and I was like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I remember signing this contract. I'm gonna ask for a

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Speaker 1: break here. And then like one of the things that

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Speaker 1: happened was like I had a family member pass away

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Speaker 1: and it was my grandma. I was I had my grandma.

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Speaker 1: My grandma passed away. And then I went to my

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Speaker 1: my grandma passed away, and she took care of me

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Speaker 1: ever since I was like three years old, and like

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Speaker 1: she like supported my family when like they first came

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Speaker 1: to America all these things. I was very close to her,

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Speaker 1: and I went to my manager and I was like, hey,

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Speaker 1: like I had this thing happen. I explained to her.

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Speaker 1: And then I had a schedule that day, and I

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Speaker 1: was like, is it okay if I like if I

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Speaker 1: show up like thirty minutes late, I just need some

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Speaker 1: times I like processed as And then she came up

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Speaker 1: to me and she was like everybody's Grandma dies and

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Speaker 1: then she like threw me my clothes and I was like,

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Speaker 1: oh okay, and I was like and it's like, while

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Speaker 1: these things are kind of implemented in the system, I

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Speaker 1: wished for it to be enforced better in the future.

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Speaker 1: You know. For example, even when I was doing therapy,

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Speaker 1: when I was going through these things and whatnot, my

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Speaker 1: boss was coming into my therapy sessions, so it's like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I am allowed to have therapy, but it's kind of

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Speaker 1: done on their own terms. So the system from experience

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Speaker 1: isn't perfect. However, we're taking steps every now and then

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Speaker 1: to move forward in the world of K pop. And

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Speaker 1: I also think that having mental health checkups is very important,

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Speaker 1: whether you're an idol or just literally anyone. And it's

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Speaker 1: very easy to kind of get caught in a system.

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Speaker 1: Have the momentum of your life, like whether you're working

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Speaker 1: like double shifts, all these things that burnout kind of

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Speaker 1: catches up to you unexpectedly, and all of a sudden

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Speaker 1: you end up with me. And I'll have these moments,

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Speaker 1: for example, where I can't move, I can't think, I

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Speaker 1: can't breathe, I can't do anything for hours and hours

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Speaker 1: at a time, and that was a huge result of burnout,

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Speaker 1: where my mind just chooses to rest because I'm not

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Speaker 1: giving it, like I'm not actively telling myself to rest anymore.

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Speaker 1: So my brain just kind of automatically shuts off and

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Speaker 1: goes like, no, we're stopping now, and I can't control it.

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Speaker 1: And if I had checked in with myself during those

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Speaker 1: times and been like, Okay, hey, I'm feeling tired here,

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Speaker 1: and I made my rest is more intentional, then these

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Speaker 1: things wouldn't have happened. And a lot of times people

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Speaker 1: don't take care of their mental health like they should.

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Speaker 1: Like another example too, something that someone told me one

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Speaker 1: time was when you're five years old compared to now

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Speaker 1: you like when huh sorry? Something that someone told me

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Speaker 1: one time is that when you're five years old, compared

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Speaker 1: to now right now, you can do more pushups, you

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Speaker 1: can run faster, you can do more pole or whatever

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Speaker 1: it is. Then when you were five years old, so

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Speaker 1: you grow physically. However, there's a lot of people who

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Speaker 1: are twenty thirty dealing with emotional problems the same way

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Speaker 1: that they would if they were five years old, and

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Speaker 1: it's because they never take time to work on it

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Speaker 1: and check in on these things. So, whether you're an

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Speaker 1: idol who's plagued by these busy schedules and endless projects,

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Speaker 1: or if you're like a regular listener or a capop

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Speaker 1: fan or whatever it is, checking in with your mental

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Speaker 1: health is very, very important. So hopefully this episode brought

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Speaker 1: you a little bit more insight into the behind the

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Speaker 1: scenes of kpop and how mental health affects the industry

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Speaker 1: and South Korea as a society. Make sure to check

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Speaker 1: in with your mental health today. Make sure to ask

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Speaker 1: one of your close friends who's maybe acting a little

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Speaker 1: bit funny or a little bit weird if they're okay

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Speaker 1: and they're doing fine. Next week, we're going to have

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Speaker 1: a therapist. Come on. I want to talk about more

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Speaker 1: personal problems and my personal experience with K pop and

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Speaker 1: what led me to my infamous crash out a couple

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Speaker 1: of months ago. So tune in next week and see

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Speaker 1: you guys. Then this is the K Factor everything k

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Speaker 1: pop