Megan Thee Stallion on Creating a Safe Space for California Youth to Talk About Mental Health (Exclusive)

Megan Thee Stallion knows what it means to be in a bad place mentally – so she wants to create a safe place where young people can come out about their struggles.

Earlier this month, the Houston rapper partnered with the California Department of Public Health to Never a hassle campaign, which is a new youth suicide prevention initiative that raises awareness and support for California’s youth.

For Megan, mental health has always been an important topic of conversation. When she thinks back to her own darkest moments, having a sense of community was everything.

“As someone who has had some very dark thoughts… at some of the worst times in my life, I just felt like I had a few good people around me who made me feel loved, who made me to feel heard, which made me feel like they didn’t care,” the “Mamushi” rapper, 29, tells PEOPLE exclusively.

She continues, “Even when I felt like I was difficult, when I felt like, ‘Oh, I’m such a burden. I don’t even want to talk about this with anyone. It would just be better if life was just one way Life would be better without me.'”

After taking some time, Megan realized that these intrusive thoughts weren’t true—and she’s thankful that her inner circle was always looking out for her.

“If I could do that for someone else or if I could help someone be directed to those types of resources, I would definitely want to do that because I know how it feels and it’s not a good place to be in . So if I can help, that’s what I’m going to do,” says the “HISS” rapper.

She also began to notice that through social media, so many young people have access to “crazy s—” that can make them “depressed.”

To protect his mental health, the “Sweetest Pie” rapper began going to therapy and found solace in the gym.

“I started working out really hard. The gym really helped me create a space where I could release my aggression in a healthy way and just be able to zone out and clear my mind,” she says.

“I felt like I didn’t even know where to start working on myself. So after I did therapy, I was like, man, I need to do something else. And just the gym, the gym really helped me,” she says.

On Thursday, Megan released a Prime Video documentary titled In her wordswhich gives fans an insight into her rise and personal struggles.

“I was in such a dark place that people couldn’t even ask me how I was doing without bursting into tears. I struggled a lot with my mental health,” she says. “I feel like people watching this will see… if my favorite artists could go through something like this and get through it and come out the other end, I could do it too.”

For anyone struggling with their mental health, two resources available are 988 and the Teen Line, which anyone can call or text to speak to a trained counselor who can help.