Fall Out Boy rocker Pete Wentz is opening up about how his life went on a downward spiral when his band took a break starting in 2009 and it only got worse when his marriage to Ashlee Simpson fell apart two years later.
Wentz said he became dependent on pain pills like Xanax and Klonopin, which he started taking to treat anxiety for not sleeping as well as flying.
“I was probably physically and mentally addicted," he told Rolling Stone. "It started from insomnia and anxiety from flying, then it spiraled."
He went on to explain "I felt like a loser already. I'd basically gone from being the guy in Fall Out Boy to being the guy, who, like, hangs out all day. I didn't see how I'd ever come out on the other side."
But when he and Simpson, the mother of his 4 year old Bronx, split he said he began relying more and more on the pills. “I was scared of everything. I thought there were always people listening to me," he said of developing paranoia. "Like, I had my house searched for bugs. It was crazy."
Now in a better place, dating model Meagan Camper since 2011, he said his son gives him purpose. "You're up in the morning, and you have to really be there," he said, Us Magazine reports. "It's not like getting up for a radio interview. In some ways, that was super helpful for my soul."