Recently, IVE’s Lei declared a temporary suspension of her activities due to health reasons, raising concerns once again about the tight schedules of idols.
On April 11, IVE’s agency, Starship Entertainment, announced through the official fan cafe that “Lei has recently experienced symptoms such as heart palpitations and shortness of breath and visited the hospital for consultation and examination.
According to the medical staff’s opinion, she needs treatment and stability,” and decided to temporarily suspend her activities for recovery.
Lei, who suspended her activities just a day after her comeback, said in a handwritten letter the next day that she is “working slowly so that this time of taking a break and taking care of myself won’t be meaningless.”
Many fans were relieved, but concerns are rising as this is not the first time Lei has temporarily suspended her activities due to health reasons.
Back in July 2019, TWICE’s Mina also suspended her activities due to health reasons. Although the exact diagnosis was not disclosed at the time, it was later revealed that she had stopped activities due to anxiety disorder.
In 2020, Jeongyeon also suspended her activities due to a neck disc and anxiety disorder.
Male idols are not exceptions either. In January, NCT’s Haechan temporarily suspended his activities due to symptoms such as heart palpitations and shortness of breath. Fortunately, Haechan recovered quickly and returned to activities after about 20 days.
Idol members’ anxiety disorder leading to activity suspension is largely due to their tight schedules. In fact, TWICE has released at least two albums every year since their debut in 2015, and including their Japanese album activities, they released as many as eight albums in 2018.
In 2020, they also released seven albums, including singles, but in 2022, they are planning to release only three albums in total and are taking a longer approach to their world tour.
As for IVE, who is celebrating their third anniversary, they have released four domestic albums (including the pre-release single “Kitsch,” five in total) and two Japanese albums up to “WAVE,” which will be released in May.
Although they debuted in 2021, they released albums every four months because they debuted in December. After their last domestic activity with “After LIKE” in August of last year, they have yet to come back with a new album.
