Musicians and mental health issues
May has been recognized as Mental Health Month since 1949, a month where the country is encouraged to take extra attention to the stigma of mental illness, looking at it in a new light and learn to talk about the topic, which is often a difficult thing to do in regular conversation.
Mental health organizations like the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) are just three of the organizations heavily promoting Mental Health Month, created by Mental Health America (MHA), a non-profit launched in 1909. The goal is to address the needs of those living with mental illness and to promoting the overall mental health of all Americans.
What does Mental Health Month have to do with rock and roll? More than one would think. Just a cursory look at some of the biggest names in music over the years sees many who have wrestled either publicly or privately with mental illness.
Syd Barrett, a founding member of Pink Floyd, suffered from schizophrenia and had moments of catatonia, leading to his forced exit from the band. There has been speculation that his heavy intake of LSD was either partially responsible for his condition or exacerbated what already existed.
The Beach Boys’ resident musical genius, Brian Wilson, suffered a similar fate as his schizoaffective disorder took hold as the 1960s wore on, leading to him forsaking touring with the band to work on music and eventually retreated into complete seclusion. Recent years have seen him return to recording, touring and even a brief 2012 reunion with the Beach Boys, but he still battles with his illness on a daily basis.
Irish songstress Sinead O’Connor has a long history of mental illness and has been open about her multiple attempts at suicide. Last August, she released a disturbing, hard to watch but also incredibly honest self-filmed video of herself in a hotel room emotionally describing her struggles and the shame that comes with it.
“My entire life is revolving around not dying, and that’s not living,” she said at one point. “Mental illness, it’s like drugs, it doesn’t give a (expletive) who you are, it’s the stigma...I’m invisible, I don’t matter a shred to anyone.”
O’Connor was able to get help, and earlier this year managed to get onstage and help celebrate fellow Irish singer/songwriter Shane MacGowan’s 60th birthday at an all-star concert in Dublin which also featured Bono and Nick Cave. She was set to return to the States with two shows in New England last week, but both of them were cancelled “due to unforeseen circumstances.” It’s also worth noting she has legally changed her name to “Magda Davitt.”
While she might not see it this way, O’Connor is one of the lucky ones. There are those who had their mental illness issues get the best of them in the end due to being misdiagnosed, untreated or simply could fight no longer.
Ian Curtis of the post-punk outfit Joy Division took his life on the evening before the band was set to leave the UK for their inaugural tour of the United States, one that surely would’ve have broken them in a major way. Fourteen years later, in 1994, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound. Guitar legend Ronnie Montrose passed in a similar manner in 2012. Last year saw the shocking hanging deaths of both grunge legend Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington of Linkin Park.
All had battled with some form of mental illness or depression, and the list goes on and on.
Amy Winehouse attempted suicide just weeks before her 2011 death of alcohol poisoning. Singer songwriter Nick Drake became distant and depressed following the commercial failure of his album ‘Pink Moon’ and died by overdosing on an antidepressant just over two years after its release. Janis Joplin had body dysmorphia, was bullied in school because of the way she dressed and her bisexuality, leading her to turn to drugs, an overdose of heroin eventually causing to her death in 1970.
Lately, there have been strides in addressing the mental health of musicians in an effort to provide support. Back in 2016, the charity Help Musicians UK (HMUK) commissioned the largest known academic study into musicians’ mental health, titled ‘Can Music Make You Sick?’ That research, conducted by the University of Westminster and MusicTank, formed a large part of the charity’s mental health campaign and looked at the effect working in the industry can have on general well-being.
More than 2,200 musicians took part in the study, with 71 percent of respondents saying they believed to have suffered from panic attacks and/or high levels of anxiety, while 69 percent reported they had suffered from depression. That was three times the findings by the UK Office for National Statistics, which indicate around one in five of the national population suffers from anxiety or depression.
Last September, radio network Entercom launched a new mental health awareness and suicide prevention campaign called “I’m Listening,” which featured a special broadcast on World Suicide Prevention Day (Sept. 10) and included spots from Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic, Halsey, Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff and Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos among others.
In December, HMUK started Music Minds Matter, a telephone support line and service for the whole UK music community operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Here in the States, if you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). It provides free and confidential support for people in distress.