Bruce Springsteen is opening up about one of the most difficult chapters of his life, his battle with mental health and the embarrassment he once felt about seeking help.<\/p>\n
The 76-year-old rock icon reflected on that time during an appearance on BBC\u2019s The Radio 2 Breakfast Show with host Scott Mills, alongside actor Jeremy Allen White, who portrays him in the upcoming biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cMental illness ran through my families. I had aunts, very, very ill. I had cousins who were very ill and I just got used to it,\u201d Springsteen said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese were the people that I loved. But no one got any help whatsoever \u2026 there was no medication. There was no interactions with any psychological help. And so, everybody just suffered through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Born to Run singer shared that the film accurately depicts his \u201cdeterioration\u201d during that difficult time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very lucky, you know, and Jeremy really captures sort of my deterioration at that time when I first, I guess I had my first breakdown, really, is what it was,\u201d he recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd though I didn\u2019t know what was going on, I was lucky enough at that point to have a relationship with, you know, Mr. Landau, Jon Landau.\u201d<\/p>\n
Landau, played by Succession star Jeremy Strong in the movie, was more than just a manager to Springsteen \u2014 he was a lifeline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had experience in this area and got me to some folks that really were able to help me out at the time,\u201d Springsteen said.<\/p>\n
Still, getting help didn\u2019t come easily. The music legend admitted that when he first began seeing a psychiatrist, he was deeply ashamed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was totally embarrassed,\u201d he revealed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd for years, I would almost disguise myself before going into the psychiatrist\u2019s office. I have my baseball hat on and my glasses and I\u2019m looking around and I\u2019m sneaking in as fast as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over time, Springsteen learned to let go of that shame and accept therapy as a vital part of his well-being.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took me years to get used to just feeling fine and confident about walking into the office,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just so forbidden in the world that I grew up in that it took me a long time to get used to it and now it\u2019s been a big part of my life for the last half of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deliver Me from Nowhere, which tells the story of the making of Springsteen\u2019s landmark 1982 album Nebraska, hits theaters on October 24. For Springsteen, it\u2019s not just a film about music, it\u2019s a reflection of the pain, growth, and healing that shaped the man behind The Boss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bruce Springsteen is opening up about one of the most difficult chapters of his life, his battle with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[64,63,137,514,515],"class_list":{"0":"post-248472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}