Bowen Yang Announces Mental Health Break From ‘Las Culturistas’ Pod

Bowen Yang, star of Saturday Night Live, Fire Island, and host of the incredibly popular podcast Las Culturistas alongside fellow comedian Matt Rogers, has announced that he will be taking a step back for mental health purposes.

Over the weekend, the actor shared the news that he needed to take a break and prioritize his mental health needs, due to “bad bouts of depersonalization.”

“Taking a very short break from [Las Culturistas],” Yang wrote on his IG story. “Bad bouts of depersonalization are f—ing me up bad, but I am doing my best to get better! Please take care, be soon.”

For those unfamiliar with the disorder, Psychology Today describes depersonalization as “an altered state of self-awareness and identity that results in a feeling of dissociation, or disconnection, from oneself, one’s surroundings, or both. It is often felt as a sense of unreality or detachment from one’s body.”

The feelings can be triggered by trauma or intense prolonged stress — and are common. According to Psychology Today, a majority of adults have experienced at least one episode of depersonalization but they are typically short-lived.

“Depersonalization/derealization disorder is usually diagnosed only if such feelings of detachment frequently recur or are chronic, cause anguish, and interfere with an individual’s quality of life,” according to Psychology Today.

In the past, Yang has spoken openly about the trauma he experienced attending conversion therapy. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he shared that he is still processing that time.

“I still have to pull that part of myself, turn it at a different angle, and understand it a different way. 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,” Yang shared. “I know that sounds kind of dramatic, but I think nowadays that’s pretty important. If I can anecdotally even be like, ‘Well, I went through this thing, so I’m sure I can get through a hard day on set’ — not that those two things are comparable at all — it puts a frame around why you do what you do.”

Yang also opened up about how he deals with feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated by watching terrible reality TV to give himself a mental break. “I feel a little overstimulated — or temporarily congested, we’ll say, because my time is pretty jammed up right now — and the only way I can push the accordion out on that is to truly shut my brain off,” he said. “I know this is not unique to me at all, but I really could stay at home tonight and watch paint dry. I really could just stare at a wall and that would be an amazing night for me. I know that sounds a little concerning, but I would like to be in a sensory-deprivation tank without paying for that experience.”

We support Yang in taking whatever time he needs to heal and are wishing him nothing but the best.