Doja Cat has opened up about past struggles with cocaine and alcohol, telling fans that she is now well past her cocaine use and has been working on the issues that contributed to her drinking.
The singer, whose real name is Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, discussed her past in a series of candid TikTok videos shared Monday.
“I’m going to make a disclaimer that I don’t want to make. I have struggled with cocaine — could’ve been like eight years ago,” she said in the first video.
“But I’m well past that. Thank God,” she added.
Doja Cat, 30, also connected her past experiences with what she described as the combination of undiagnosed mental illness and social media, saying the two can create serious problems that people may not fully recognize.
Doja Cat says social media and alcohol fed negative thoughts
In a second video, Doja spoke more directly about her relationship with alcohol.
“The best example for my experience is using the internet as a means of validation to the negative thoughts in my head, which were then brought on by drinking alcohol,” she said.
She clarified that, in her experience, alcohol was a bigger problem than most other drugs.
“I’ve never had a real problem with drugs, except for weed, but alcohol is something that I definitely have had a problem with,” she said.
Doja also pushed back against labeling herself an alcoholic while acknowledging that her drinking had become problematic.
“I was never an alcoholic but I definitely had problems,” she said. “So if I can teach anybody anything, I will tell you that it’s not good to pair these two things together.”
Her comments also offered a broader warning about using social media for reassurance when already dealing with negative thoughts. Rather than treating online reactions as an objective measure of self-worth, she suggested that people should consider the mental state they are in when consuming or responding to that content.
Doja Cat addresses accusations of self-hatred
In a third video, Doja addressed criticism from fans who have accused her of hating being a Black woman.
The Grammy winner, who is biracial, said her struggles with self-image began when she was a child.
“I think I hated myself since I was — could have been like 8 years old. And that was when I moved to my predominantly white neighborhood,” she said.
She did not present the comments as a simple explanation for everything she has experienced, but described how growing up in that environment affected the way she viewed herself.
The discussion was part of a broader series of personal revelations that Doja said she felt compelled to share.
“I just felt like this TikTok was necessary and I need to get this s–t off of my chest. Today felt like the right day,” she said.
Doja Cat previously revealed her BPD diagnosis
The singer had previously spoken publicly about her mental health.
In March, Doja revealed that she had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). She said she had spent much of her life hiding how she actually felt and trying to appear as though everything was fine.
“I’ve learned from a very young age to pretend that I like stuff, to pretend that I’m happy, to pretend that I don’t like stuff that I do, to appear like everything is okay,” she said at the time.
“I’ll get it done. And it caught up with me, and I think it always does for people. I’m now struggling with BPD,” she added.
Doja also said she had been in therapy “for years” to address what she described as an “agonizing condition.”
Her latest comments build on that earlier disclosure, giving fans more context about some of the personal struggles she says she has faced.
At the same time, Doja's account is her description of her own experiences. Her comments about cocaine and alcohol use do not establish a diagnosis of substance-use disorder, and her statement about never being an alcoholic is her own characterization of her drinking history.
For Doja, the decision to discuss those experiences publicly appeared to be less about presenting a polished version of her life and more about acknowledging parts of it that she had previously kept private.
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