Bruce Springsteen on making podcast with Barack Obama
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Over his life, rock legend Bruce Springsteen has had a series of mental breakdowns– the first of which happened suddenly when he was 32, he told Esquire in 2016. The star, nicknamed The Boss, was with a friend driving from New York to Los Angeles after the release of his album Nebraska. On their journey, the normal sight of men and women holding hands and a band playing triggered an unnerving response.
Springsteen, who said he had suffered from “agitated depression” throughout the years, described feeling like “an observer . . . away from the normal messiness of living and loving.”
Years later, the rocker told Esquire he still doesn’t fully know what triggered his feelings of emptiness although he suggested they could be from repressed trauma from bad relationships during his childhood.
“All I do know is as we age, the weight of our unsorted baggage becomes heavier . . . much heavier.
“With each passing year, the price of our refusal to do that sorting rises higher and higher…”
The star has written in his memoirs Born to Run about having a strained relationship with his dad whom he said: “loved me, but he couldn’t stand me”.
In the Esquire interview, Springsteen spoke candidly about the depression he experienced in his 30s and 60s and how his family has also suffered from mental health issues.
He said: “During this period, I was so profoundly uncomfortable in my own skin that I just wanted OUT. It feels dangerous and brings plenty of unwanted thoughts.
“Demise and foreboding were all that awaited.”
“I’m on a variety of medications that keep me on an even keel; otherwise, I can swing rather dramatically, and … just … the wheels can come off a little bit.
“So we have to watch, in our family. I have to watch my kids, and I’ve been lucky there. It ran in my family going way before my dad.”
Springsteen’s father Doug was a world war two veteran who suffered from PTSD and was diagnosed with Schizophrenia.
Depression can have mild or severe symptoms, which can lead to suicidal thoughts or feeling like life isn’t worth living.
Springsteen has described experiencing these severe symptoms.
At one point the star doubted whether he or not he wanted to live.
He said: “I once felt bad enough to say, ‘I don’t know if I can live like this.’
“I once got into some sort of box where I couldn’t figure my way out and where the feelings were so overwhelmingly uncomfortable.”
As suggested by Springsteen, you are more likely to develop depression if someone in your family has had it, according to the NHS.
There are a number of treatments available for depression.
The NHS recommends treating mild depression with therapy sessions and lifestyle changes such as exercise.
For most cases of depression, people also experience benefits from anti-depressants, although the health body emphasises that “not everybody does.”
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