Hyunjin thought about leaving Stray Kids afraid of how his struggles with speaking could affect the group's activities

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That’s really tough to know, but the situation also makes me admire him even more. Struggling with speaking isn’t just about losing words, but It affects confidence, communication, and even identity. For someone like Hyunjin, whose voice and expression are central to his art, It must have felt isolating and frustrating to suddenly find something so natural becoming a source of fear. Yet he kept pushing forward, performing with the same passion and sincerity despite it all. You can tell how much he truly loves what he does and how deeply he cares about Stray Kids.

Quote from kahei

as hard as this is to hear (and for hyunjin to say), it's actually really inspiring and important that he is doing this. yes, he doesn't owe us anything, esp in regards to his private life, but by doing this he is showing that struggling with mental health is common and it should be okay to talk about rather than push down!

So true. Stray Kids have always been remarkably open when it comes to mental health. Lee Know, for example, even talked recently about going through burn out not only from work but from life itself, which takes a lot of courage to admit.

When they acknowledge that kind of struggle, It really reminds people that taking care of yourself and speaking up about what you’re going through doesn’t make you weak, even in a industry searching for perfection.

Quote from Elliah

I hope he receives a lot of love for his honesty and feel comforted by that too. It would be scary to anyone, but especially to someone who's career is dependent on his voice and being public.

I have to say, I did notice his voice changed, in some clips he sounds hoarse/weak. First I assumed he had a cold or something. But when it was in many clips for a long time, I figured it might be due to the tour being hard on his voice - even though I didn't really notice it in his singing/rapping. This makes a lot of sense now. I'm glad he got help and feels better now. And it's brave to be open about it to such a big audience.

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A few weeks ago I actually mentioned to you here on Allkpop, on the thread about The Fact Music Awards, that when I went to the dominATE show in April, I noticed he seemed to have a harder time engaging with the audience compared to other members. At the time, I thought it was just because of his shyness, but it turns out the situation was a lot more serious than I realized.

Quote from KarimaJ

It's insane he went on a full on tour with live singing while dealing with this problem. I can't imagine having to power through in front of thousands of people every night.

I'm glad he talked about it because it's nothing to be ashamed off. His performance never faltered.

It was the same with Han. He was visibly very down S class promo and it wasn't a surprise when he revealed he was doing poorly during the time. I'm glad they both sought help.

About Han, It was indeed very clear. I remember he didn't stayed for the MCD encore for 'S-Class' (the same day I.N was absent, because he was sick) and, the next day, during the second-week performance at Mubank, towards the ending for the stage, Han was obviously struggling to breath, I was scaried he would pass out, even though, It wasn't live.

The whole S-Class/5-STAR era was weird during promotions.

It actually makes a lot of sense.