Tish Cyrus opens up about the long and emotional road she traveled while trying to heal from her divorce from Billy Ray Cyrus, revealing that it took years for her to truly process everything she went through.
Nearly four years after the former couple filed for divorce in 2022, Tish reflected on that period during an appearance on Jan. 14. Squeeze podcast detailing how survival mode became her default response.
For years, Tish said she pushed herself to keep moving forward without stopping to fully confront the pain.
“Everything that’s happened, I’m like, ‘Well, that’s life, just get on with it,'” she shared, explaining that she had been in the relationship since her early 20s and didn’t pause to unpack what she was feeling.
That approach became even more difficult after she lost her mother, Loretta Jean Palmer Finley, just two years before the marriage ended.
Tish admitted that she was extremely close to her mother and barely had time to grieve before her personal life began to unravel.
“Two of the most tragic things in my life that happened — I didn’t process or stop to really think about it,” she said.
During that time, Tish admitted that she was heavily addicted to marijuana, calling herself “a big weed smoker.”
She explained that it helped manage her anxiety and worked almost like medicine, although she didn’t fully acknowledge that she was self-medicating.
“I didn’t even realize I was doing it for that reason,” she admitted.
That changed in 2024, when she stopped using weed and was suddenly overwhelmed by emotions she had suppressed for years.
“I think it kind of numbed all that pain, and then I quit smoking, and all of a sudden a week later I’m just in complete anxiety to the point where I’m not functioning,” Tish recalled.
“It was the hardest thing I had ever been through.”
Now, more than a year later, Tish says she is finally learning to deal with her anxiety and is feeling stronger on the other side.
“I feel so much better,” she emphasized.
“Like, I wasn’t functioning that year, I was just trying to survive. Now I’m completely on the other side of it.” As she put it simply: “I’m learning to control it.”
