The Walking Wounded
I was reading an article today that really struck me as being relevant to my work, regarding celebrities and depression.
The article is on Bruce Springsteen and his struggle throughout his life with the symptoms of severe depression. The more popular and famous he became the more depressed he felt.
In the age of the internet and social media, we learn more and more about the personal lives of celebrities (and each other). Many times I read things that scream to me as poor boundaries and TMI (Too Much Information) but in this case, it was fascinating to read about a successful, working-class singer who struggled intensely with mental illness.
I see many people here in my Fairfax office who struggle with depression. One would not know by looking at them. Many of them go to work every day and do what needs to be done, most of the time.
However, if you really got to know them, you would realize, something was amiss. I consider these clients “the walking wounded.” They develop coping strategies, some of them positive, others not so positive, in order to cope with their melancholic state.
Springsteen developed his coping strategy, unlike many entertainers, a more positive one. During an interview with the New Yorker, Springsteen discussed his coping mechanisms that “push toward self-obliteration that occurs onstage. You are free of yourself for those hours…” Springsteen would figuratively destroy his ego on stage in order to rid himself of the pain of depression.
Springsteen goes on to discuss how mental illness has affected his family from generation to generation. Springsteen never used drugs to cope with his depression because he observed from others in his family how this type of coping made things even worse.
It’s a pity that more successful men don’t come forward and discuss their struggles with mental illness.
Suicide due to depression still kills too many men in this country…
The full article can be found at Yahoo! Music here.
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