Just 2 weeks out of the hospital, is Kanye doing too much too soon?
Kanye West sightings are once again becoming a frequent occurrence.
Just three days after his muchdiscussed meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, the rapper turned up Friday night at West Hollywood’s MOCA Pacific Design Center for the opening of an exhibit by Paris-based furniture designer Rick Owens.
West, 39, had made his first public appearance since his hospitalization on Dec. 8 when he visited Owens and wife Michele Lamy as they put the finishing touches on the show.
There also have been reports West is already back at work in the studio, collaborating with Pete Rock on an album he has dubbed Turbo Grafx 16.
But is it too much too soon for a person only two weeks removed from a hospitalization for exhaustion and sleep deprivation?
Vibe’s Michael Saponara argued that pain is good for Kanye’s art, writing: “In my opinion, ’ Ye has done some of his best work after his lowest points in life. Just re-listen to Through The Wire and 808s & Heartbreak.”
Jenn Mann, a Los Angelesbased marriage and family therapist and the author of The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection & Intimacy, agrees — to a point.
“It’s important that creative people have creative outlets,” she notes. But more important, “he needs to get proper care, get stabilized and have the support of his wife and family. Being near them is good for him. (Wife) Kim (Kardashian West) seems like a very stabilizing force. And I always think it’s best to have your regular doctors seeing you face-to-face on a regular basis after you have that kind of breakdown.”
Going back out on tour would be a riskier proposition, she says.
“There’s no question that a music tour is not a super-stable environment. ... Late nights, tons of adrenaline that can keep you from sleeping, lots of pressure to perform — those are very stressinducing at a time when he doesn’t need that. But I also do understand that when you sign a contract, breaking that contract is also stress-inducing so it’s about finding a balance.”
In an interview earlier this year with Britain’s Guardian, electronic music veteran Moby, 51, cataloged the mental strain of life on the road: “I’ve never gone on a tour and not experienced anxiety, depression and insomnia. In the early days, it seemed like a small price to pay. But at this point in my life, I can’t in good conscious punish myself and my body and my mental health out of obligation to go on tour.”
The emotional high of performing and the subsequent comedown can bring on what is known as post-performance depression, a condition that Utah therapist John C. Buckner says can be aggravated when artists don’t take proper care of themselves.
“Just as 2-year-olds are more likely to have temper tantrums when they are hungry or sleepy, musicians and athletes are more likely to be emotionally vulnerable if their basic needs have not been cared for,” he wrote in 2013 for the music journal Percussive
Notes. “Balancing out sleep, healthy eating, etc., will allow you to have more emotional control, thus allowing more control over the emotional swings of PPD.”
Plus, Mann cautions, “jumping back on tour too fast or being too busy recording or taking business and social meetings can really take your eye off your focus, which needs to be your recovery and your well-being. And when you take your eye off that ball, a lot of the time, you drop it and it can cause bigger problems.”