Solange Opens Up About Her Battle With An Autonomic Disorder
“I’m still learning so much”
Solange announced on Instagram yesterday that she's
in South Africa on New Year's Eve due to an ongoing battle with an autonomic disorder, which affects the nervous system. She said she's been "quietly treating" the illness for the past five months.
"Wrote, deleted and re wrote this like 5 times," Solange began her post. “Still not sure what exactly or how much I want to share... However it’s so important to me for the people in South Africa, a place that has tremendous meaning to me and that has given me SO SO MUCH, to know why I won’t be performing at Afro Punk this NYE.”
The A Seat at the Table singer's disease can create issues with heart rate regulation, blood pressure, body temperature, and more, according to the Mayo Clinic. “It [has] been a journey that hasn’t been easy on me," Solange continued. "Sometimes I feel cool, and other times not so cool at all."
Because she was given a complicated diagnosis, Solange said she is still "learning so much" and that her doctors don't want her to take such an "extended lengthy flight" at this time, followed by "a rigorous show right after."
She said she was beyond "saddened and sorry" to miss the show in South Africa and she vowed to come back and deliver the performance another time. She thanked Afropunk and “all of the other festivals this past summer/fall who have known about my health, kept it confidential, and gone out of their way to make me feel supported while doing these shows.”
Then Solange left fans with a message to take into the New Year. "As a part of the self care that I’ve tried to encourage this past year, it needs to start with myself," she wrote, "and I’m looking forward to doing a better job of this [in] 2018."
