Tortured Mental Health Victims: Bruce Springsteen.

Many rock stars, celebrities, and significant influential people of whom despite their successes are severely tortured by the swaying array of emotions of mental health. Not many people know that over 450 million people suffer from these chemical imbalances in their brain. One very notable musician, Bruce Springsteen, suffers majorly from depression.

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Like many musicians, Bruce majorly struggled before he became “The Boss”. For entrepreneurs, artists, and strong individuals who try to pave their own path individually, there comes major highs and lows. So, imagine for a second that you can feel the lowest of hopelessness. Then, suddenly when something good or promising happens to you that you feel like you are going to take over the world, becoming one of the greatest touring acts of all time. The Boss is 68 years old and he uses his greatest struggle of depression to his advantage, being able to channel it to become his greatest power.

But this is never an easy task for anyone, even for The Boss.

Growing up, his father struggled with severe alcoholism and it created a major impact on his life. There it is, he is more relatable than what is on his exterior, and many people realize that. This is why with his ability to use his adversity with his father and his depressive weakness, he has overcome to use it as a superhuman ability to be able to touch audiences from all over the world.

A great example of him being able to connect with people are the songs, “Thunder Road”, and the follow-up song, “The Promise”, which was basically his part II. Thunder Road is about taking chances with relationships, individuality, changes, and life itself. It’s about running away and being free, happiness, love, and joy. This song is about being a dreamer, which we all can relate to.

Then his come down happens due to his experiences with depression and how he had to deal with adversity in his life. “The Promise” is all about facing your dreams becoming a reality or for them to fall apart. The let down from your dreams hits Bruce hard in the gut, that spirals his depressive episodes. This is why he is so relatable to many people. “The Promise” teaches us that we need to be dreamers in order to come to face with reality and that depression is a good thing because when we as humans face the excitement of experiences that he talks about in “Thunder Road”, we can learn to appreciate them even more so.

Sure, he is a big rock star, and it seems like all of his dreams have come true. But, this lesson of this two-part song that touches on the issues of mania and depression teaches us a lot about false and true realities which make him admired by many. Bruce is the epitome of a person whose dreams have come true, but he teaches us that as much as he wanted that to happen, he realizes the reality of it wasn’t as easy and glorifying as it seemed to be.

This is why he has been able to overcome his struggles of depression and prolonging his dreams by turning it into one of his greatest strengths.

Mental health is not a disease if you let it be. He was presented with this adversity, and he used it to his advantage and that is why he is the icon that he is today.

With the subject of mental health, I wrote a book called “Gray Poopon”. If you would like to purchase a copy of my mental health (bipolar) memoir on Amazon, here is the link to get your paperback copy.

Also, if you prefer the Kindle version, here is the link to purchase your ebook.