Lainey Wilson on Days-Long Panic Attack, Why She Had 3 Therapists (Exclusive)

Lainey Wilson is getting candid about her psychological well being journey.

in this week’s PEOPLE cover storythe nation star, 33, reveals she as soon as had three therapists, together with one for enterprise, who, she says, “helps me get a point across with a little bow wrapped on top, because if I really let my Louisiana crazy side come out, I’d be saying things a little sideways.”

On tour, “you have 100 something people with you, and you’re dealing with a lot of different personalities,” she says. (*3*)

After moving to nashville in a camper trailer at 19 and spending practically a decade grinding within the music enterprise, Wilson landed her major-label deal in 2018.

As her profession took off, Wilson struggled with nervousness and despair, which she opens up about in her upcoming Netflix documentary, Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool (streaming April 22). A relentless radio tour schedule in 2019 pushed her to her breaking level: a days-long panic assault.

“I was going around meeting every radio station in America,” she says. “You go into a conference room and you play your song and sometimes they’re into it, sometimes they’re on their phone, sometimes you’re singing to the carpet.”

“After four solid months visiting all these different radio stations, I was just exhausted and I was burned out from having to constantly be on,” she continues. “I needed to curve up in just a little ball and shut the world out fully.”

Advice from Reba McEntire helped: “’When I feel like I can’t do it anymore, I do it for somebody else,’” Wilson remembers McEntire telling her, including, “It was like a light bulb went off.”

She carried that message into her Whirlwind world tour (which wrapped on March 6) by bringing a younger “cowgirl of the night” onstage throughout every present and telling them, “You are beautiful, you’re smart, you’re talented, you can do anything.”

That sentiment helps hold Wilson — who additionally discusses her psychological well being journey in her new Netflix documentary Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Coolstreaming April 22 — grounded too.

“I’m not just a singer, songwriter, musician — that’s what I do,” she says. “Trophies and awards are things that come along with success, but it cannot define me as a person, because that’s when I lose sight of who I am. “I got to keep my head screwed on straight.”

By sharing her story, Wilson needs “to encourage people to speak up.”

“Speak up when you’re not feeling great, because there most likely will be people around you who can help you through it or get you the help you need,” she says. “If you’re not telling the people around you how you’re feeling then nobody’s going to know.”

For extra from Lainey Wilson, choose up the brand new subject of PEOPLE on newsstands all over the place Friday.